The Next In Line
by benthefirst
Summary: A young boy sets out on his journey to fulfill a promise he once made. Little does he know that fate already has his future planned and that he is actually the next in line for a position that many dream about. TF
1. A break in the routine

_And it finally begins. After a lot of procrastination I finally managed to get myself to write this FanFic. So before we actually get into actually story like every good author I have a couple of announcements to make. _

_First of I would like to thank IcecreamSyndrome. Her story New Species was the motivation I needed to write my own story. As both storys follow a similar plot one can say I was inspired by it. If you have not read that story yet. Do it! Without it your life will always be incomplete. _

_Secondly, I would like to note here that this is my first FanFic, also I was raised bilingually. So if you find any typos or grammar mistakes (the odds of it are pretty good) let me know, leave a remark in your review, send me a PM, flame and rage at me, find out where I live and punch me (please don't) or try to notify my some other way. I really want to write a good FanFic and writing it correctly is part of it. Also I would love reviews. If it is praise, a question about the story, constructive criticism or even some flaming I would love to read it all._

_Lastly, the disclaimer. Although it is a nice way to get the word count up it is pretty annoying if you ask me. So I will say it once and this disclaimer will be valid for this and any following chapters. _

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of the Characters that were presented in the games/anime/manga. Any OC that will make an appearance in this Fic is in fact a figment of my imagination or if not it will be announced in the chapter where that OC** **appears.**  
>(Seriously guys, if I actually owned Pokémon would I be writing FanFic about it?)<p>

_Without any further ado I present to you "The Next In Line"_

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><p><strong>The Next In Line<br>**

Chapter 1

A Break In The Routine 

Felix groaned when he heard his alarm go off. Groggily he swung his arm around and silenced the alarm with a good smack. Without even opening his eyes he sat upright and found his slippers in the same spot he left them last night. Before Felix really woke up, he was in and out of the bathroom and done with his morning routine. Still yawning descended the stairs to the ground floor. Anyone who was not used to this stairs would have probably ended up falling down them. They were really narrow and steep and actually could have been called a latter. But climbing these stairs all his life Felix had no problem with them even with barely opened eyes. He did manage to bump his head against the ceiling. He had grown a bit once he turned twelve and was still getting used to the extra height. Grumbling and rubbing his forehead Felix entered the kitchen of the small cottage that his father Kevin and he shared.

His Dad was of course already sitting at the table reading the newspaper and enjoying his coffee. A cheerful: "Good morning Felix" was left unanswered by his son. Felix found his chair, fell into it and starting eating his cereal.

Eating breakfast was enough to get Felix fully awake. He quickly fell into his post breakfast routine. Put away the remains of breakfast and give the kitchen a quick wipe. As soon as the work is done sit down and study. He would study until noon. Lunch is followed by a quick clean of the cottage and more studying. The sounds of dad's car coming down the forest road would signal Felix to start his dinner routine. Routine is comforting and boring. Routine makes you forget about everything except the task at hand. That is how Felix lived for the last couple of years and he was happy. However any small change is enough to knock one out of the routine harder than a Snorlax using body slam. His dad still sitting at the kitchen table after he was done cleaning was one of those changes.

Felix immediately was worried. _Was his dad sick? That was not good. Dad had to work in order to pay the bills. But they had a nice cushion. He could deal with his dad being sick. He would just have to change his routine but that he could do it._

His dad let out a long sigh. "Felix, I think it is time you and I have a talk." A short pause "I think it is time that you finally go on your journey"

Felix was stunned by this_. Did Dad want him gone? What did he do wrong?_ But at the same time the idea appealed to a small portion of him. Seeing the mixed emotions on his son's face Kevin continued.

"Felix for the last 4 years you have been living in this routine of yours. I think it is time that you finally moved on." Tears threatened to form in Felix eyes. But just as quickly they became emotionless, then curious. This made Kevin sigh again. _That cannot be healthy for him. _

"Anyway I already talked with Professor Oak yesterday. He has a Pokémon waiting for you, although he did not tell me which one." Again there was silence. Felix still did not say anything "Listen Felix, I think this will be really helpful. You did not have any contact with anybody else for the last 4 years. You need to come out of your isolation. Do you remember what you promised your mother?" This was a low blow and Kevin knew it. He had hoped that time would heal Felix wounds but apparently sometimes one just needs a little help.

At the mention of his mother Felix looked at his feet. After yet another moment of silence he looked up and finally spoke. "When can I leave?"

* * *

><p>Felix soon found himself in his dad's car en route to Pallet Town. It was not a very long drive. Their cottage was situated just south of the Viridian Forest. The longest part of the trip was actually navigating the forest roads until they could get onto a proper one. Soon enough Felix found himself standing in front of Oak's Lab alone. His dad finally drove to work after making Felix promise that he would stop by before entering the forest.<p>

Nervous about the whole situation Felix walked up to the door. Should he just walk in or knock. Unsure of himself he just stood there. Luckily the decision was taken out of his hands when suddenly the door opened and a man walked right into him sending Felix to the ground.  
>"Oops, sorry about that. Did not see you there." Felix looked up to see a young man with spiky brown hair. This man was wearing a lab coat and had some sort of coin hanging around his neck.<p>

"So, you must be Felix. Gramps mentioned that you would be coming today. My name is Gary Oak by the way." Gary continued talking while helping Felix back to his feet. "So you are here to start your journey?" Felix still lost for words just nodded. "You belong to the quite type don't you?" Gary concluded with a chuckle.

"Not really, you just took me by surprise."

"Well whatever the reason, my presence is needed elsewhere. You can find Gramps in the Lab, just follow this hallway."

With those words Gary hurried off. Felix was about the say "Thank you" but it would have been pointless as Gary was no longer within earshot. So Felix did the only thing that was left to do. Wander into a strange building with only one direction given. What could possibly go wrong?

As he suspected not much went wrong. At the end of the hallway he found a door and behind it the Professor, just as Gary told him.

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><p>Felix knew about the Professor of course. Who hasn't? A lot of the books dad had brought home for him to study were written by Professor Oak. But Felix had to admit, the Professor started to look old. Mind you he always did in a way with his grey hair, but in the pictures he always seemed to have some sort of energy youthful energy. This energy seems to be leaving him slowly. Well nobody can live forever.<p>

"Ah, Felix you are finally here. So your Dad finally convinced you to start your journey?"

At this Felix was confused. "Finally? He just talked to me about it this morning."

"Really?" Professor Oak raised an eyebrow "Never mind then. Let's get started. It's time for you to meet your Pokémon partner."

Felix was actually getting excited now. Dad told him a lot of stories from his Pokémon journey. Which kind of Pokémon he caught and who he battled. He also said that a Pokémon was a friend for life. Felix started to wonder, not for the first time, what happened to Dad's Pokémon. He never saw one of them.

The Professor got up and picked up one of the many Pokéballs that were lying around in the lab. _How can he even tell the difference between them all? _

"So Felix, you will not be getting the typical choice between the usual starter Pokémon. This has a simple reason. You did not come to the usual time trainers start and I just do not have the Pokémon yet to give out to new trainers".

Felix nodded at this. It was logical and he understood, although it bugged him a bit. He really wanted a Bulbasaur. But he couldn't get a Pokémon the Professor did not have. It would also be rude to reject a Pokémon the Professor was willing to give away.

"Secondly, I did not acquire this Pokémon in the usual way. This Pokémon was found during a raid of a Team Rocket base and seeing that it was very young Officer Jenny handed it over to me."

This confused Felix. His mind had already been thinking about alternatives. Maybe a starter from a different region or another rare Pokémon. It was a well-known fact that Professor Oak gave Ash Ketchum a Pikachu as his starter. But after that last comment he wasn't sure what to expect. He was actually a bit worried now. So he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Wait, I thought Team Rocket was disbanded years ago."

"Technically, they did. But one does not simply disband an organization like Team Rocket. There are always some second in commands who are willing to take the lead when the leaders get arrested. Nowadays there are only some small groups left that work under the Team Rocket name. But somehow the Jenny's cannot get rid of them. It's like trying to get rid of cancer. Anyhow, you don't have to worry Felix. This Pokémon was born a couple of day before the raid. Team Rocket didn't even have time to do something evil to it and I have been taking care of it ever since. It seems to be a bit restless here so I thought it would be a good idea to send it along with a new trainer." With that he released the Pokémon.

In front of Felix appeared a Pokémon he had read about. It was quite famous in the scientific community. It had the basic form of a duck, although its crystalline body was pink and turquoise. It was about 2' tall and it seemed to levitate a bit of the ground. It tilted its head when it looked at Felix and sounded more synthesized than natural. "Porygon"

Felix did certainly not expect a Porygon. They were rare and controversial. Their Conversion ability had quite a few interesting applications in battle. After Pokémon and Trainer had a good look at each other, Felix could not shake the feeling that Porygon was analyzing him thoroughly, he crouched down and held a hand out to Porygon.

"What do you say, Porygon. How about you and me go on an adventure together?"

Porygon did not answer immediately instead it just continued to star at the young boy. This gesture actually made both the Professor and Felix nervous, as they both thought the same thing. _Was Porygon going to refuse? _ The Professor finally let out a sigh of relief when Porygon happily said its name again and leaned forward to let Felix pet him. After a short while Felix stood back up and looked at the Professor who nodded.

"Well now that is done there is not much left. Here you have Porygon's Pokéball and some spares. Here is also the newest version of the Pokédex." Felix accepted the items and made to stow them in his bag. It was an awkward moment when he noticed that he had in fact forgotten his bag at home. Oh well, he was planning on visiting his father anyway. The Pokéballs found a temporary place in his pockets, seeing as the belt clip was also in his bag. Not being able to resist testing the Pokédex he pointed it at Porygon.

_Porygon, the virtual Pokémon_

_Using the most advanced technologies, scientists finally succeeded in making the first artificial Pokémon. Porygon is capable of reverting itself entirely back to program data and entering cyberspace. This Pokémon is copy-protected so it cannot be duplicated by copying._

"Cool", after that short comment the Pokédex too was stored in his a pocket. Porygon was also quickly returned to his Pokéball.

After saying thank you and goodbye to the Professor Felix left for Viridian City and Professor Oak returned to his never ending research. Both were deep in thought. Felix thought about his journey and the Pokémon he just got and the Professor about his research and of course poetry. Neither of them paid any attention to the world around them. If they had, they may have been able to hear a high pitched melodically giggle.

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><p><em>That's it. I hope you enjoy it. I will try and update the story "regulary". I am notoriously lazy<em>. _Any future author notes will always be at the end of the chapter. Do not forget to review and subscribe._

_Edit: Cleaned up the chapter and corrected several mistakes. _

_benthefirst, signing out.  
><em>

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	2. The Journey Begins

Chapter 2

The Journey Begins

It was a beautiful day in Kanto. Not a cloud was to be found in the sky. The Pokémon were happily running around gathering food and taking care of their families. Along route 1 ventures a new trainer, like so many before him. This trainer was not in fact happy and excited that he is finally starting his journey. Felix was hungry and was constantly reminded of this fact by is growling stomach. The pokéballs in his jean pockets were rather uncomfortable. Every step he took he was reminded of how stupid he was. Although he could not change anything now so he kept moving on. The faster he got home, the faster he would get his bag. Only around noon did he allow himself a break.

Sweating slightly Felix sat down in the shade of a tree with a heavy thump. He was rather reluctant to admit it but he was out of shape. _If nothing else, I will at least get some workout during my journey._ He contemplated his journey one more time. What should he do? As far has he could tell he had multiple options. He could just do the normal gym circuit and participate in the Indigo League or he could try his hand at something more different like coordinator or the Pokéathlon. Shaking his head he dismissed the Pokéathlon immediately. He was so out of shape how could he enter his Pokémon in a sport competition? So he tried to decide to either become a trainer or coordinator. _Damn it. I should have probably asked professor Oak about it. He would could have given me some advice or at least tell me who I could ask. _Felix sighed in resignation. _I should have thought about my bag as well. Damn it again. Hopefully I will get the routine down soon. This sucks! _

While berating himself it occurred that he may as well ask Porygon what it wanted to do. He did not want to force the Pokémon to do something and a second opinion never hurt anybody. Releasing it from the Pokéball Porygon materialized. It tilted its head again and looked questioningly at Felix.

"Porygon, I am not sure what to do now so I wanted to hear your opinion." Porygon nodded once to indicate Felix to continue.

"Well, what would you rather do compete in Pokémon battles or in contests?"

"Pory" Felix was not sure what Porygon meant. His Pokémon could any answer yes or no questions at the moment. He had red that a trainer, once he formed a bond with a Pokémon, could understand its intention. He let out a sigh.

"Ok, let us try this again. Just shake or nod you head." Porygon nodded.

"Ok, do you want to battle?" A single nod.

"So you do not want to participate in contests?" Again a single nod.

_Might as well go for Pokémon trainer then. Didn't dad do the Gym Circuit? I remember him saying something like that. How come I never saw any of his badges?" _ Returning to the problem at hand Felix nodded to his Pokémon.

"It's decided then. We will compete in the Gym Circuit and even try our hand at the Indigo League if we are good enough." This time Porygon nodded happily three times. He still could not put his finger on it but something bothered Felix about how Porygon should emotions. Pushing the problem to the back of his brain to let it puddle there he got up.

"Might as well train then." Pulling out his Pokédex he pointed it at Porygon and pressed a few buttons. Soon a voice, not unlike Porygons, said: "Known moves are Tackle, Conversion, Conversion2 and Sharpen." Noting the moves he clicked a few more buttons to pull up the lists of all moves that Porygon could learn. He had to admit. The list was rather impressive. Returning his Pokédex to his back pocket. He looked down at Porygon.

"Ok, lets at least work on the moves you already know. Once we got those down we can work on some new ones." Yet another nod from Porygon.  
>"One more thing, I am actually feeling quite uncomfortable always calling your Porygon. May I nickname you?"<p>

"Porygon" It exclaimed happily. _Good at least it did not nod this time. But should I call it. It is in fact an it because Porygons do not have a gender so it should be something gender neutral. Hm… that's it!_

"Porygon, how about I call you Byte?" It was a bit cheesy and Felix knew it but somehow it fitted. Porygon seemed to think same because it starting bouncing up and down exclaiming "Porygon" over and over again. Bouncing may be a bit of a misnomer considering all Porygon did was repeatedly levitate up and down but it was the thought that counted. The reaction of his Pokémon made him genuinely smile and to his own surprise he noticed that he had not smiled like that in a very long time.

"So Byte, now we got that out of…" Felix suddenly was cut off by the sound of moving leafs and twigs. He and Byte both turned to find the source of the sound only to find trees and undergrowth.

"Maybe we are hearing..." again Felix was not able to finish his sentence. This time both saw the movement in a nearby brush. The young trainer took a second to consider his next move unsure what to do in this situation. A quote from a history book sprang to his mind. _"When in doubt, advance!"_ It was apparently some kind of standing order for soldiers. He may not be a soldier but, meh, what could happen?

"Let's go, Byte!"

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><p>With this meager forethought, Felix started running at the bush closely followed by Byte. The wild Pokémon, at least that is what he assumed what it was, was apparently surprised by this action. Felix swore he could hear a squeak and more rustling as whatever it was fled. The chase did not last long. Firstly Felix had a difficult time getting through all the brushes and under growth and secondly he was sooo out of shape. Finally he had to give up in lean against a nearby tree to catch his breath. Byte apparently had an easier time. <em>Well of course. He just levitated over everything. <em>While catching his breath Felix looked around a bit. It seemed he landed in some sort of clearing. A small patch of flowers grew in the middle of it. A bit closer to the edge some berry trees. Looking back he thought he could make out the route… wait berries? Looking back there were indeed berry trees and one even had some ripe berries growing on it. Walking up to it he found that the small tree had a few green berries growing on it that looked like some sort of bulb. Wondering what kind of berry it was he took one and nibbled cautiously. It tasted pretty good. Talking another careful bite, Felix savored the taste. A small noise behind him caused him to turn around. He found that Porygon had landed on the ground to watch his trainer eat the berries.

"I am so sorry Byte. Are you hungry, do you want a berry?"

"Gon" answered Byte shaking his head. Remembering what the Pokédex said about Porygon he asked

"Do you even need food?" Felix got another "Gon" and another head shake as an answer. _Well that makes it easy. _Giving the berry tree his full attention again he started harvesting the last couple of berries. It was not much but at least it would make a nice snack.

Making his way back to Route 1, Felix soon found his path blocked by a Rattata.

"Huh, what do we have here?"  
>The Rattata looked at him then the berries in his hand. After taking a tentative step forward and sniffing the air it started to snarl at Felix.<p>

"Now why would you do that?" Comprehension dawned when the young trainer saw how fixated the Rattata's eyes were on his berries. Testing his theory he moved his hand and sure enough the eyes of the rat Pokémon followed.

"So you want to fight me for these berries?" The Rattata nodded, still snarling.  
>"Well you are just out of luck, I am starving. Byte you're up!"<p>

Byte moved past him and levitating just a bit higher than usual enough to look down onto the Rattata from a greater height but not high enough to give the enemy a chance to duck underneath him and attack his trainer. The just stood there for a moment. The Rattata tried to size its opponent up, while Byte ran through his analysis protocols. Rattata finally made the first move.

With sudden burst of speed the Rattata shot forward and hit Byte hard in its chest making it move backwards a bit. Felix winced at the impact. He had not expected a quick attack to be so …. well quick. Rattata apparently wanting to press its advantage reared up for another attack. This time its front fang glowed white and expanded. Felix recognizing Hyper Fang started to panic.

"Byte use Conversion2!"

Byte glowed for a second. When the glow faded Byte still looked exactly the same. Felix was disappointed to see that his Porygon was apparently unable to use Conversion2 properly yet. By the time he looked at the Rattata again he noticed how close the Rattata was. He tried to call out to Byte to dodge but it was too late. The small rat jumped up high in the air and used the help of gravity to let his fang descend on Bytes head. Not wanting to see how his Pokémon got hurt Felix closed his eyes and waited for the impact. Nothing happened.

Opening his eyes again he saw a Rattata that looked just as confused has he felt. Rattata attacked with Hyper Fang again, but this time Felix watched. The attack came again and as it hit Byte, the attack went right through as if it was a ghost. Felix actually facepalmed as soon as it clicked in his mind. Conversion2 had worked after all.

The Rattata grew frustrated and attack Byte over and over again but all the attacks it through at Byte had no effect. All of them went right through his immaterial body. Byte just watched impassively as the Rattata tried to harm him.

"Byte use Tackle, please." His Porygon shot forward and no longer immaterial crashed into the small Rat. The rat was now fully spooked by this experience and decided the berries were not worth fighting this creepy Pokémon and fled.

Seeing that its adversary had fled Byte converted back to its normal type. Felix on the other hand had troubles comprehending that he had actually won his first battle. It did not seem like one. After using only one move the Rattata had already lost. Was it luck or was Byte just that good. Probably a combination of the two.

"Good job Byte. Looks like we won our first battle. How do you feel?"

"Porygon –gon!" Byte declared proudly.

"He got you once in the chest? Are you sure?"

"Pory-Pory" Byte tried to assure his trainer but Felix did notice how Byte tried to hide the fact he had landed.

"I think you need a rest. Byte, return!" and with a "Pory" of indignation and a flash of red Byte disappeared into his Pokéball.

* * *

><p>Route 1 was quickly found again and Felix resumed his trip to Viridian City. During the walk he had time to think. His first thought was <em>Damn it, I should have tried to catch that Rattata. Why do I think about these things always when it's too late?<em>

He also replayed the battle in his head and came to the conclusion that he failed as a trainer in that fight. First off he panicked during the fight and secondly he had actually closed his eyes. The latter was probably worse. _If I am actually going to challenge the different gym's I will probably have to get used to the idea that Byte or any other Pokémon I might catch may get hurt._ This morbid thought brought him to Byte his Porygon.

He realized a couple of things. First off Felix finally found an answer why the emotions of Byte bothered him. Although all emotions it had shown were quite recognizable they seem empty. It's like Byte actually understoods the concept of Happiness and knows how to show his Happiness but he never actually felt it. This made Felix sigh as he was once again reminded that Byte is actually a piece of software. It probably never felt any kind of emotion before. The second thing was that in the last exchange he actually understood what Byte was trying to say. He doubted that Pokémon-Trainer bonds form as quickly as it apparently did between Byte and him but just accepted it as a small blessing not wanting to think about it anymore.

So instead he concentrated on getting to Viridian City and enjoying the berries he had found.

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><p><em>Another chapter done thanks to the liberal application of Mountain Dew.<em> _Please leave a Review._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	3. New Headaches

Chapter 3

New Headaches

Entering Viridian City by foot was a lot different than entering it by car. It was somehow more relaxed and peaceful. He was able to set his own pace, which was not dictated by the traffic. He almost felt at peace with himself if he weren't so hungry. So he started to look for the PokéCenter. He was able to get a glimpse of it during his drive to Pallet Town and it still resided in the same place. Climbing the stairs with the last energy he could muster, Felix more or less toppled into the center.

"Oh my, what happened to you?"

Felix raised his head to find a very worried looking Nurse Joy. He had read about the Joy dynasty and how they seem to operate every PokéCenter. He sometimes wondered why they all looked the same. His favorite explanation was genetic engineering.

"Nothing serious, I just forgot my lunch."

"In that case, we have a cafeteria which trainers can use for a small fee." Nodding Felix handed over Bytes Pokéball and his Pokédex.

"I will check it out. While I am eating would you be so nice and take care of my Pokémon and could you also register me for the Indigo League?"

"Of course, I would love to."

Nurse Joy took the offered items and started to work. Felix on the other hand found the cafeteria. Sitting down at an empty table he started to dig in.

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><p>"Do you mind if I join you?" Felix's fork stopped half way to his mouth as he looked up. A boy about his age with a tablet and food was standing there. His fiery red hair was the only really defining characteristics he had. Both his brown eyes and round face were forgettable. He also seemed to be wearing some sort of necklace or pendent. Felix couldn't really tell as it was hidden beneath his shirt.<p>

"Sure, help yourself. I'm Felix by the way."

"Hey, I am Tanner." After a quick handshake and an awkward silence both boys turned their attention back to their food. It was Tanner who finally broke the silence.

"So, are you a trainer?"

"Yes, I am. Just started today matter of fact."

"Squitle, Bulbasaur or Charmander?"

"Pardon me?"

"If you just started out today, you must have come from Oak's Lab. In that case your choice of starters would have been Squitle, Bulbasaur and Charmander. Which one did you pick? It was Squirtle for me."

"None of them. I got a different one."

"You did?" Tanner looked intrigued now. „Which one? Can I see it?"

Nurse Joy chose that exact moment to appear. "Here you go Felix. Everything is fine with your Pokémon and I also registered you for the Indigo League."

"Thanks a lot Miss Joy." Taking the Pokéball and Pokédex back he immediately released Byte.

"This is my starter." Giving Porygon a quick look over, he wanted to make sure that Byte really was ok. It wasn't like he did not trust Nurse Joy but… he just had to make sure. Glancing up to his table companion, he found that Tanner was regarding Porygon with a stony expression.

"Is something wrong, Tanner?"

"That is not a Pokémon."

"Excuse me? Of course it is! Here…" Flipping open his Pokédex Felix pointed it at Byte. It immediately began reciting the same information as before.

"You misunderstand me. A Pokémon is a living, breathing creature with emotions which according to a Sinnoh legend were created by the deity Arceus. That…" Tanner pointed at Byte without looking at it. "…that is a science project. As your Pokédex said it is nothing more than a bunch of ones and zeros."  
>Felix was not sure how to answer that. All of the points Tanner made were reasonable. Byte said that it didn't need any food. During their short time together he had seen no indication of breathing. Could it be described as a living being then? He did not want to think about Byte's emotional state, because he was sure to what conclusion he would come and lastly Felix kept referring to Byte as an "it". Didn't this show that his Porygon was just a "thing" for him as well? Unable to keep on looking in Tanner's determent eyes glanced at his partner. Byte had actually hung its head. But that wasn't what made him blink several times. Byte was actually hurt by Tanners words. Not just looked hurt, but it was actually. Felix could see it in the eyes. There was one more thing that proved to Felix without a doubt that his Porygon … all Porygon were actually Pokémon was a single silent tear running down Byte's beak. Finally able to make eye contact again Felix looked back at Tanner. The other boy was a bit surprised at the turmoil of emotions that were now in Felix's eyes.<p>

"You're wrong." The quite ice cold voice surprised even Felix a bit, but he was too mad to care. He tried to take a few calming breaths but they were not helping. He only wanted to get away from this idiot.  
>"Byte, could you Tackle him please? Also try not to break anything." Tanner went crashing to the floor as he got struck.<p>

Felix recalled Byte while leaving. Not hearing the groaning boy on the floor. Not hearing the shouts of the other trainers. Not hearing the admonishing calls of Nurse Joy. He just wanted out.

* * *

><p>Breathing some fresh air allowed Felix to get a grip on his emotions. It surprised him how his anger got the better of him. Luckily his still downed Porygon offered some distraction. Kneeling down to Byte Felix petted it's head.<p>

"Hey buddy, are you alright?" Still looking quite depressed, Byte gave a weak "Pory" as an answer.

"Come on do not let that guys bother you. You are the best Pokémon I could ever ask for. Here let me carry you." This turned out to be a bad idea. Although he did not look it Byte was heavy. Felix surprised by the weight lost balance and planted his face firmly in the dirt. Byte on the other hand, just started to levitate again and started making funny computer sounds which Felix suspected was laughter or at least amusement. Grinning at his own blunder he got up and started to walk home

* * *

><p>It was already dark outside when Felix finally arrived at the cottage. Only his familiarity with the area allowed him to move on. Also he really did not want to stay at the Pokécenter after the scene he had made. Sighing with contempt while entering, Felix found his father right where he had expected him: in the living room, sitting in his recliner, reading a book. Kevin looked up at the noise.<p>

"Hey there, Felix. I didn't expect you to be here tonight. It is quite a long walk from Oak's Lab. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah Dad, I would love a bite. I also would like to introduce you to Byte."  
>Although the evening was not routine, it was comforting.<p>

* * *

><p>Felix groaned when he heard his alarm go off. Groggily he swung his arm around and silenced the alarm with a good smack. Trying to clear his mind from the strange dream he had, he sat upright and put on his slippers. Getting up he made his way to the bathroom, only to trip over a crystalline duck. The duck gave off some angry sounding beeping and screeching before levitating on top of Felix's bed and falling asleep again. This confused Felix even more. Where did that duck come from. Did it come from his dream? Swaying slightly Felix tried to pry his eyes to get a good look. After studying for a heartbeat he finally released he was looking at Byte. <em>I am not a morning person. <em>While working his way through the bathroom, flashes from the dream he had, kept distracting him. He had seen flashes from hundreds of different Pokémon. Small, big, weak, strong, familiar and unknown. He had seen Pokémon from legends and others one could see in a back yard. The strangest thing of all was that he heard a melodic giggle right before he woke up. He needed to eat something. Food is just like duct tape. It fixes everything. Climbing down the stairs and entered the hall. He was about to go through the living room into the kitchen when Felix stopped. Something had been different although he could say what. Maybe he had forgotten something upstairs? Backtracking his steps he found his room and the bathroom to be in perfect order. Returning to the hall, he thought about it one more time. It wasn't really important but it bugged him. _Ah well, when I least expect it, it will come to me. At least I did not hit my head…_ finally realizing what had been missing he turned to look at the stairs again. Ascending and descending the stairs a couple of times, he came to the conclusion that he had actually shrunk. Where he had hit his head yesterday, he had now about an inch space. _Weird, don't boys usually grow during puberty?_

A call from his dad finally brought him to the kitchen. Kevin did a double take when his son entered.

"What's wrong dad?" Felix asked looking concerned.

"Something's different about you…."

"Yeah, I am missing about two inches."

"What?"

"Yeah, I did bang my head while walking down the stairs today."

This surprised Kevin. Now that he mentioned it his son did look smaller, but that wasn't what bothered him.

"Your eyes..."

"What's with them?"

"They are green!"

Felix scoffed at this remark "They always have been. Did it take you this long to notice?"

"No, no, no, you misunderstand me. You used to have green and brown eyes. But now there more like a leaf green."

"Really?"

"Didn't you look in the mirror this morning?"

"Must have been still sleeping…."

Sheepishly Felix grabbed his spoon and used it as a makeshift mirror. And his dad was right his eyes were now startlingly green.

"That wasn't there yesterday… was it?"

"Can't say that I noticed."

"Hm… must have been the sun."

Father and son looked at each other and shrugged and did the only thing they could: eat breakfast.

Felix quickly departed after breakfast was cleaned up. Byte didn't want to leave the comfortable bed at first. Felix quickly won the argument when he whipped out Byte's Pokéball and recalled him. He had done some research and concluded that he would be best advised to head to Pewter Gym first, considering that Viridian Gym was considered the last and the toughest in the Circuit. With this in mind the course was set for Viridian Forest.

* * *

><p><em>Edit: Cleaned up some wording and spelling mistakes.<br>_

_Another Chapter done! Now that we got the majority set up we can start having fun! I would also like to thank IcecreamSyndrom for the kind review. I like using stuff in my stories that others haven't done before. So Porygon was an obvious pick. Also it is one of my all time favorite Pokémon.  
><em>

_I am hopping an getting one or two more chapters up before the 28. After that I will be in Madrid for a week, celebrating New Years. _

_That's it for now_

_Boom Boom Pow AWAY!_


	4. What?

Chapter 4

One Small Step

Viridian Forest wasn't really that scary when one grew up in it. Taking the familiar path, Felix expertly avoided any Beedrill nests while taking the shortest path to Pewter City. He also started training Byte. This mostly consisted of defeating some small territorial bugs. It wasn't much but at least a start. Byte usually took them out with one Sharpen/Tackle combo. One particular tough Weedle required Byte to Tackle it a second time. Felix also captured none of these Pokémon. If they were territorial like this it usually meant there was a nest of some kind nearby and he did not want to separate any Pokémon families. Wanting to keep the anger of any potential hives low, Felix quickly left the area of the battle after spraying some potion on the defeated Pokémon.

Finally having supplies and a backpack Felix felt empowered. With Byte's resting comfortably on his Belt he was moving through the forest at a blinding pace. Finally stopping for a small break, found a nice spot along a creek and wanting company released Byte. There wasn't much said between trainer and Pokémon. The former enjoying his sandwich, the later the a few sunrays that managed to break through the leafy roof. With a full belly, decided to imitate his Pokémon and have a little power snooze. Considering the distance he already put behind him who could blame him for an hour shuteye? The world was perfect. Nothing mattered except the moving rays of sunshine on his face, the whisper of the creek and the scuttling of Pokémon. Too bad the peace did not last.

A sudden tug on his legs brought Felix back to his senses. Accompanying the tug came a strangled yell and what sounded like something heavy hitting a rock. Sitting upright Felix had the blink several times to be sure what he was seeing was in fact real and not a figment of his imagination. Sprawled over his legs, lay a girl. This girl was dressed entirely in pink. Pink hair, pink bandana, pink shirt, pink jeans and pink shoes. The only things that he could see that was not solid pink were her white socks, although with pink shapes he couldn't quite make out. While getting up from under the girl he noticed that she still had not moved. Leaning forward he saw a trickle of red between her pink hair.

"Ah crap. Why me?"

He had of course read about how to deal with head injuries, but he never applied that knowledge before. The sight of her blood made him kind of queeze. A "Porygon" made him turn around. He found Byte looking at him with a "You-better-help-this-girl-or-I-will-tackle-you-until-you-are-in-the-same-condition" look. Not wanting to get tackled or think about the emotions his Porygon suddenly showed he started gathering the necessary supplies.  
>Five minutes later the deed was done. All that was left was to wait until she awoke. Kneeling down he washed his hands in the stream.<p>

"Byte, I wanted to ask you something. Can you feel emotions in extreme situations?"

"Pory?"

"Oh, you know what I mean."

"Porygon-gon"

"Hm… I thought as much. Is this part of your program?"

"Gon"

"Really, then why does it happen?"

"Proygon. Pory-Pory-Porygon."

"Interessting. I wonder if there is a patch for that." A little smile found its way to Felix face as he said that. All Byte could do is huff in indignation before he continued  
>"Anyway there was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about." Taking a breath he continued. "What do you think you are a boy or a girl?"<p>

"Porygon?"

"I know it's a random question. I just don't feel comfortable calling you "it" in my head. It reminds me of Tanner."

"Porygon-gon-pory."

Felix nodded once. "Ok, then" then he froze. What was he doing? Having a conversation with a Pokémon. If anybody had seen him, they would have probably thought him crazy. He had felt the meaning of Byte's words without really understanding them. Trainers could only understand rudimentary things from their Pokémon and only after forming a strong bond with their Pokémon which could take years. Those kinds of things didn't happen in the span of two days. Luckily a stirring pile of pink offered a distraction.

"Hey how are you feeling?"

"Ugh, my head…"

That had been a stupid question. Felix was overwhelmed with the whole situation.

"So…um… Sorry that I did not have any pink bandages."

„What?" The girl lifted a hand to feel the before mentioned. "Oh, that's alright red is a shade of pink after all. So who are you anyway?"

"Felix, I am the one you tripped over and isn't it the other way around pink being a shade of red?"

"Nope, pink came before red so red is a shade of pink. By the way, I am Gabriella, but everyone calls me Gaby."

Felix wasn't sure now if this should amuse or worry him. At least she knew her name.

"You hit your head pretty hard. You should probably rest a while before trying to get up. "

"Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have tried to catch that strange Pokémon."

"Pardon me?"

"I saw this weird Pokémon through the tries sunbathing so I decided to sneak up on it and catch it. If I hadn't been so focused on that Pokémon, I would have probably noticed you."

"Weird Pokémon you say."

"Yes!", she started to gesture a lot and excitement was evident in her voice. "It had this huge crystalline body and one could see the colors of the rainbow around it like a halo. It looked fierce and mighty. Did I mention it was pink? I bet it was a legendary Pokémon no one discovered as of now!"  
>Only through application of a huge amount of willpower did Felix manage to keep from laughing.<p>

"Hm… you don't say. Did it by any chance happen to look like the Pokémon sitting over there?"  
>Gaby followed the boy's finger and found Byte staring at her.<p>

"Oh… it shrunk…"

That was too much for Felix and he burst out laughing. Gaby looked around rather sheepishly for her bag found it and buried her face in it so her red face would not show.  
>Finally being able to catch his breath Felix managed to ask.<p>

"So, what is a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"  
>Immediately her head snapped up. Felix saw passion in her eyes and he could not shake the feeling that he would regret asking that question.<p>

"I am on a holy mission the spread the teaching of our religion." This surprised Felix.

"Your Religion?", he asked tentatively. He didn't really want to get in a discussion about religion right now but it was obvious that the girl would have told him anyway. May as well be nice.

"Yes, the religion of Mother Mew!"

"Mother Mew?", he had read about Pokémon religions. Most of them just accepted the fact that everything we see was created by certain Pokémon. That is why we should respect the Pokémon and their creation. No worshipping at all. The teaching of Arceus is the perfect example as it is the most widespread of all religions. There were some more "zealous" churches, like those of Lugia and Ho-Oh in Johto. These were local phenomena however.

"Yes, we as a church accept the fact that Arceus created our dimension, world and Mew, but Mew was the one who laid the egg from which came forth all Pokémon we see today and thus shaped to world we see today. To put it in perspective, Arceus created the canvas and Mew drew a masterpiece on it. As the actual artist of our world she deserves to be worshipped by everyone. That is why I set forth on my Pokémon journey. To preach the religion of Mother Mew to everyone!"

"Wow…" Felix was impressed by the fact that she managed to say all that without catching her breath once and decided to use the short interruption.

"So, how many people where you able to convert?"  
>Gaby looked down at her feet. "Not a whole bunch."<p>

"How much is not a whole bunch?"

"Seven…most people just don't want to worship a Pokémon."

Gaby looked really depressed now. Felix was about to reach out and comfort her when she suddenly perked up.

"But I was able to raise awareness for the Mother Mew and that is at least something. I know if I keep trying my church will someday surpass the one of Arceus."

"Your church?"

Gaby looked sheepish again. "Yeah, I actually founded the church. The first two people I was able to convert were my parents."

"So, who are the other five?"

"Different Grandparents and an aunt." She mumbled almost inaudible. Suddenly smiling she asked the question Felix had been dreading all this time.

"So will you join?"

"Um…. No?"

"Oh…. ok. You will change your mind eventually."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well I will be traveling with you, of course."

"You will?" _This girl can't be for real!  
><em>  
>"Yes of course I will. You see a week ago I had this dream about a forest. I am pretty sure that it was a vision from the holy Mother Mew, so I came here. You are the first person I have met and you also saved my life. That must mean that you are destined to become one of my priests!"<br>_  
>Yup, she is crazy. There is no other explanation. <em>Felix looked at Byte to see how he was taking this. With a certain amount of satisfaction he noted that he looked just as incredulous as Felix felt.  
>Gaby continued on either not noticing the look in their eyes or choosing not.<p>

"You do not have to worry. I won't be bugging you around all the time. One cannot force a prophecy after all. Just by being around me you will likely pick up most of the important things and once you decide to become a priest I will teach you the rest."  
><em><br>How the in the name of all legendary Pokémon did a dream about a forest turn into a prophecy about me becoming a priest?_

"So what's the wait? Let's go!" Felix tried to stop her but she was too late. She stood smiled, then vomited. Byte had to dodge the stream and started scolding Gaby. Felix supported her until her stomach was empty.

"On second thought, how about we stay the night?"

"How about we move away from your lunch and then set up camp?"

"Sounds good…"

A camp was quickly set up. Felix was pleasantly surprised when he discovered that Gaby was much more capable of setting up a camp then he was. "Years of experience." she told him. They past the time with talking, well mostly Gaby talked about her journey, her religion, her Pokémon, her religion, her adventures and also her religion. Felix got confused when he discovered that she only had two Pokémon. An Abra and an Igglytuff at that. He had expected more from a person who has been on their journey for years. The revelation came when he found out that she had in fact started her journey two years late and had in fact been only traveling for a month. Her dad had made the suggestion, mentioning that she would have a much larger audience when she traveled from town to town. Felix on the other hand suspected that her father had an ulterior motive.

Dusk quickly came and Felix soon found himself arguing with Gaby. He was not comfortable with Gaby sleeping after having a concussion. Unfortunately he was unable to come up with any valid alternatives. He had to watch helplessly as Gaby crawled into her sleeping bag and fell asleep. Sighing and already wondering how he would explain a corpse to Officer Jenny the next morning he too found his sleeping bag and after returning Byte to his Pokéball, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p><em>Edit: Cleaned up wording and typos.<br>_

_Wow, I am really on a roll. Well I hope you enjoy the new character as much as I did when I wrote her. I also found good amount of FanFiction alerts in my spam folder. So let me now answer couple reviews I have not read up till now. Unfortunally this turned out longer then expected. Next chapter should be his first catch, battle and maybe a little more.  
><em>

_Icreamsyndrome: Yes those were Lum Berrys. I am very glad you noticed. :D_

_Koten123: Thanks for the tip. I went through the first couple of chapters and cleaned them up a bit. _

_Jeffry Seven: Grammer is my old foe. I really try to avoid any errors but... well you see the results. Yes the changes have started and they will become more visable starting over the next few chapters. The story will be about how he reacts and deals to the change but also of those around him. Like Gaby, his Dad or society as a whole :) _

_If I keep up like this I will probably exceed my expectations. Who knew that reviews could be such a motivator. _

_Any way it is time to wrap this up. _

_Boom Boom Pow AWAY!_


	5. Another Day In Paradise

Chapter 5

Another Day In Paradise

Felix found himself standing. Looking around he saw nothing, only white. _Am I dreaming? _He must be. The … room… world … plane? Whatever it was, was not only devoid of objects and color but was also completely silent. Wandering around Felix hopped on finding something different. But the scene did not change. It was white, silent and vast. A loud thump was suddenly audible. It sounded like something large and heavy landed just behind Felix. Slowly turning around he saw to large pink logs. _No, those are not logs, they're legs. _Slowly craning his head, he followed the legs to a large pink colored torso. On top of this torso was Gaby's head.  
><em><br>"_Crap"

Giggling a very high-pitched laugh that was very unlike the actual Gaby, giant Gaby leaned down and stretched one large hand out towards him. Felix decided it was time to run.

_This must be some kind of nightmare. _He was able to surprise giant Gaby with his sudden escape, but she was gaining on him now, all the while giggling that weird giggle. Sudden bump made him trip and  
>fall. A shadow loomed over Felix and he turned around to see a hand coming to get him.<p>

* * *

><p>With a strangled cry Felix sat up. Breathing heavily, he could feel the cold sweat dripping down his forehead. Looking around franticly he found what he was looking for. A normal size Gaby, sleeping peacefully. Finally able to calm down he sighed. That had been a very strange dream. Scratching the lower back of his back, Felix decided it was time to get up. He could see the sun starting to appear at the horizon. In the process of extracting himself from the sleeping bag, he noticed a pile of something lying at the foot of the sleeping bag. On closer inspection, he found a pile of the green bulbous berries he had found on Route 1.<p>

"How did they get here?"

Looking around he saw no wild Pokémon. It was also rather unlikely that a Pokémon would stash their food like this. It looked more like a … present. Maybe one of the Bug Pokémon he beat felt sorry for attacking him. Or…. who was he kidding. He had no idea. Releasing Byte from his Pokéball he asked him what he thought about the pile of berries. His answer was quite simple: breakfast.

Laughing at the simplicity Felix finally got up and did is morning deeds. He returned to find that Gaby was slowly waking up as well. Rolling up his sleeping bag and generally cleaning up a bit, he sat down to enjoy the berries. Popping the first berry in his mouth he savored the test. They really were good. Offering one to Gaby, he used his other hand to guide a second one to his mouth.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Gaby tackled him, catching him totally off guard. She snatched both berries out of his hands and grab the rest, which were lying around. She almost considered sticking a hand down Felix throat to rescue the first berry he ate, but decided it was already long gone.

"How DARE you?

"What?"

He was utterly confused now. He also wondered if these kind of occurrences would become normal around Gaby. He hoped not.

"How dare you eat Mew's holy fruit?"

"Mew's holy what?"

"Do you have ANY idea what these are?"

"Um….berries?" Felix hazarded a guess.

"These are Lum Berries you dolt! They are allegedly Mew's favorite berry and as such they are out of bounds for us humans!"

This statement made Felix cough. He had been eating Lum Berries, the medicinal berry there is? In light of this new fact, he relented. He also wanted to end Byte's show. The Porygon was making a lot of his laughter noises."

"Alright, I won't eat any Lum Berries. May I at least have them back?"

"Why should I give them to you? You'd probably just eat them when I am not looking."

"Well, I am a Pokémon trainer. If my Pokémon are ever in need, I could help them with those. I am sure Mew would not mind if we used the berries to protect her creations." This was a cheap shot and he knew it, but he really wanted the berries back, now that he actually knew what they were.

"Well,…" Gaby hesitated, " alright, if you are such great Pokémon trainer as you say prove it to me!"

"I never said…." His protest however was cut short.

"We will have a one on one battle and if you win you'll receive the Lum Berries."

"Very well then, Byte are you done laughing yet?"

Still chuckling the Porygon rose and positioned himself in front of Felix. Gaby cleared away her stuff and backed away before pulling out a Pokéball.

"Let's go Abra!" the small psychic Pokémon materialized. Felix was not sure if it was awake or sleeping, but seeing as how Gaby looked confident, he assumed that her Abra was in fact battle ready.

"Seeing as how you are my priest to be, you may have the first move."

"How generous of you High Priestess, so Byte…"

"High Priestess? That is an awesome title! I knew you would be a good addition to my church."

Sighing at the damage he had done, he began the battle.

"Byte, let's start this off right. Use Sharpen, then transition into a Tackle."

Byte's beak elongated until it had a sharp edge at the end of it. Without any warning he shot towards the Abra.

"Oh, please you will have to do better than that. Abra, Teleport."

Byte closed in on Abra and reeled back his head to attack. Before the attack could land however, Abra disappeared and reappeared in front of Felix.

"Behind you Byte, try hitting it again!"

Byte immediately turned around and shot towards Abra again and again Abra teleported away, this time reappearing on a tree. Expecting the move however Byte turned around, found Abra and flew towards him. Neither Abra nor Gaby seemed to expect Byte to fly. Truth be told, Felix himself was surprised how well Porygon maneuvered that high in the air, seeing as how low he staid to the ground usually. Byte managed to hit the stunned Abra sending it flying. Felix winced as it hit the ground hard.

"Abra are you alright?" The Abra gave a small nod. "Great, now we know what to expect. Time to stop playing around, Abra use Confusion!"

A blue halo surrounded Abra as Byte got picked up thrown against a tree.

"Thank you very much Gaby."

"Huh?"

"Byte, use Conversion2!"

"What's that?"

Byte glowed a bright white for a second before revealing a metal Porygon.  
><em>Steel, not what I was hoping for.<em>

"What happened to your Porygon?"

"Byte, try to Tackle that Abra again."

"Teleport away again, hey mister I asked you a question!"

Sighing and rubbing his forehead he explained. He kind of felt like the stereotypical villain explaining his plan right before he got stopped.

"It is one of Proygon's signature moves. Depending on the last move that hit Porygon it changes its type to whatever is resistant against that move."

"So Byte is now a steel type?"

"Looks like it."

"Cheater, that is not fair. Anyways Abra use Confusion. It may take a while to down that Porygon."

Felix did not like how the battle was developing. Byte was just too slow to catch Abra. Abra on the other hand could land a couple of Confusion attacks. Neither of them did a lot, but it was beginning to add up. Deciding he had to do something he tried his luck again.

"Byte, try Conversion2 again"

"Why would you do that, he is already resistant."

Felix however did not answer. He was looking intently at Byte in order to see the result of the move. When the white subsided, Byte looked normal again, but was surrounded by the same blue psychic energy that surrounded Abra.

_Damn unlucky again._

"I still do not understand what you wanted to achieve with that. Abra continue with your confusion attacks."

"Dodge it. We have to wait until Abra makes a mistake in order to hit it with Tackle."

The slip up he was hoping for did not come. Abra kept teleporting around. Gaby kept cheering her Pokémon on, interlaced with some prayers and Byte got weaker and weaker. Something suddenly snapped in Byte. Exclaiming angrily he shot a colorful looking beam of light straight at Abra. Not expecting a ranged attack it hit Abra square in the face. The attack however did not seem to do much apart from making Abra shout in surprise.

"Wow, since when did Byte know Psybeam and why haven't you used it before?"

"I would guess he just learned it."

"Oh, that came kind of unexpected, but it doesn't change anything. Abra keep it up in Mew's name."

"Byte, try Conversion2 one more time!"

"Again? It doesn't do anything!"

For a third time Byte glowed a white. This time however the body of Byte was pitch black, his eyes seeming to shine white. Felix could stop the grin forming on his face.

"Ok, your Porygon looks weird… anyways another confusion. We have to end it sometime today."

Abra glowed blue as the psychic Pokémon unleashed another attack on Byte. This the Byte took the full force of the attack, which seemed to do absolutly nothing.

"Uh-oh" Gaby seemed to have finally understood what Felix was hoping for. "That is totally unfair."

"Ok Byte, time to go on the offensive. Try hitting that Abra with anything you got."

What followed was a rather unimpressive match. Abra could not hurt Byte anymore. On the other hand Byte could not hit Abra. At the last second the small Pokémon would always teleported away. Seeing that this match would only end when one of the Pokémon would drop from exhaustion, Felix decided to intervene.

"Looks like a draw to me."

"I think you are right."

"So are you prepared to call it a draw?"

"Yeah, I am."

"That's enough Byte. Come back here, I have some medicine for you."

"Abra, would you come over here?"

Both Pokémon returned to their respective owners. Byte was not to badly injured, seeing how the conversion mitigated a lot of the damage. Gaby's Abra seemed only tire. Not surprised as Felix only managed to land one Tackle and Psybeam. Byte taken care for, he approached Gaby.

"Nice battle, so, what about the Lum Berries?"

"What about them?"

"Who gets to keep them? It was a draw after all."

"Me of course, we agreed upon you getting the berries if you were able to beat me. As you said yourself it was a draw."

Felix wanted to argue but seeing how Gaby was already storing the berries in her bag, he gave up. They were only berries after all. Gesturing to his Pokémon he collected his stuff and set forth towards Pewter City.

"Hey, you are not leaving me here, are you?"

Quickly gathering her spread out gear, Gaby started to run in order to catch up.

"You do not have to leave me here in this forest only because you did not win. Ever heard of sportsmanship?"

Gaining no answer from Felix, she felt ignored.

"Really, you could have just told me that you are a sore loser. If we hadn't been battling for the holy Lum Berries I may have even let you win, you know, with you being a rookie and all. Oh come just say something?"

Felix finally turned around giving her an hairy eyeball. "Um….You talk too much?"

"Oh, that is actually quite funny. My grandpa used to tell me that all the time and every time I tried to explain the fact that I did not talk too much he would always send the family Growlith after me. He was just a cranky old man. Not nice at all. He also always seemed to prefer my brother. I never found out why. By the way, do you have any siblings?"

"No" Felix really wanted to listen to the forest, but apparently Gaby had other ideas. It did not bother him as much as he had expected, it was kind of nice having company.

"Well, I grew up with an older brother. He was a totally idiot. Had very funny ideas about religion, they were totally wrong of course, but I could not convince him to join my church. Oh well, maybe next time I see him. Oh, I just remembered Felix, could you … aaaaaaAAHHH!"

Gaby finally tripped over a root she had not seen. Tumbling forward she grabbed on to the only thing she could reach: Felix. The poor boy did not expect the sudden push and fell forward. Gaby landed fairly soft. Felix on the other hand, fell face first into a tree producing a sickening crunch. The collision was hard enough the shake up the whole tree. Little Porygons were circling his head and the taste of blood in his mouth informed him that he had split a lip. This not being all he heard a small rustle and a scream of "Shroooomish"" before something soft landed on his head. They all lay there perfectly still for a minute. Felix knew exactly what he had on his head and was deathly afraid of it, having enjoyed the effects of its poisonous spores before.

_If we all get up very slowly we may not startle… _

Felix could feel the weight of Gaby lift as she suddenly stood up.

"Oh cool, a Shroomish!" Gaby shouted out in excitement.

"No, no, no...", whined Felix.

Resigning himself to his fate, he mentally prepared himself for what was to come, as he felt the Shroomish begin to vibrate. The attempt the hold his breath failed miserably and he could soon taste the sweet spores on his mouth.

Shortly after the pain began.

* * *

><p><em>So here we are again. Yet again another chapter completed. I feel a bit evil for stopping the chapter here and letting Felix suffer. Oh well, the pains of being a character. Also if any how did you like to battle scene? I am not quite happy with it, so any advice would be welcomed.<br>_

_Anyway there are alot of new Reviews to answer, so let me get right at it._

_Zerons:_ _You may have read the old version. That, I admit, was a wall of text. I broke it up already as much as I thought I can. Do you still think it is like a wall to you? How could I lighten it up any more? Also, the only things I use to write this story is Microsoft Word, my brain and occasionally _ _for any single word translations I may need. I know my grammer is not the best and I am working on it but did you have to compare it to Google Translate. That, I confess, hurt. Anyway I am giddy with excitment about what is too come with Gaby. A possible catch? Have not thought of that yet. Let me write that down, maybe something will come of it :D_

_Tanon:__ You are not missing out on anything. If you reread the summary, it basically says that the protagonist will inherit a powerful position. Afterwards I added TF too it, so you may have missed it. Considering that the main character of the story is listed as Mew alot of people correctly concluded that Felix will be undergoing some transformations. Adding to this, some were able to pick up on clues, that certain changes have already started. __Wait and see, it will become clearer with each chapter :D_

_IcecreamSyndrome: __That was EXACTLY my point. I am soo glad you picked up on it. It was bugging me the whole time that I had to write "it" when referring to Byte. I often had to correct myself, but Felix had to notice too how uncomfortable the whole situation was._

_To finish this off a couple of things. I know I make grammer and the stray typo. I actually read over these stories before posting them and I find a lot of stupid mistakes but unfortunally not all. So instead of telling me, that I have grammer mistakes, just send me a PM or write in your review what exactly is wrong or at least point me to the sentence with the mistake, so I can fix it. The next person reading this story will thank you. _

_Here is a quick recommandation. If you are looking for other great FanFic, check out "Knowledge of an Outsider" from Ashlyn-i (also to be found in my Fav. List)  
><em>

_Lastly I hope that Santa Clause was genourous this year. (or you had a great holiday, according to your prefrence) and I wish you all a happy New Year. I will be gone until the 5. January so expect the next update no later than the 8._

_benthefirst, signing out.  
><em>

_Boom Boom Pow AWAY!_


	6. There Is Always A First

Chapter 6

There Is Always A First

Gaby was panicking. Felix was lying on the flailing around and screaming in pain. The Shroomish who caused this dilemma, was now jumping excitedly up and down screaming its name. On her other side Byte was also exclaiming loudly. Both Pokémon were staring at her.

_What should do they want from me. I can't speak Pokémon. Why can't they shut up so I can think? Oh Mew, what should I do, what should I do, what should I do, what should I…._

WHAM!

A tackle from Byte sent Gaby to the ground, knocking some sense into her again. Glaring at the culprit she angrily said:

"You know? You could have just told me to get some Antidote. No need to tackle me." A string of angry sounding computer noises accompanied her, as she stood up.

"Also, no swearing when I am around. What would Mew think of you when she saw you?"

To her surprise Byte actually looked to the ground at this and turned away. Silently thanking Mew that she now only had one screaming Pokémon around her, she grabbed the convulsing boy. After a small wrestling match she manage to get his backpack off of him, collecting several bruises from flailing arms in the process.

_He is a lot stronger than he looks. Let's hope he remembered to buy Antidotes. _

Opening the bag, she found the entire medical supply smashed. The other content was mushed or soaked with different Potions.

_Crap, now what I do? I could feed him some food hoping some of it was soaked with Antidote, but what if it actually makes it worse?_

Almost in a trance she threw Felix's bag aside and open her own. Finding the small wooden box, she opened it to reveal the Lum Berries. Quickly snapping the box closed, she stood up.

_No! Those are Mew's berries. I will just have to get him to Pewter City as fast as I can. He only seems to be in pain. I am sure he will understand later. _

Her heart dropped even father as froth started to form around Felix's mouth. Gaby wrenched open the wooden box again. With one hand she grabbed all the Lum Berries. With the other she tried to ply open Felix's mouth. All the while saying "I'm sorry." As soon as possible she placed all the berries into his mouth and worked his jaw. She sighed in relief when he stopped foaming and his screaming ceased.

Finally relaxing when he saw him swallow. She sat back. If Gaby hadn't know that he was just poisoned, she would have thought he was sleeping. Wipingthe cold sweat from her forehead, Gaby decided it was time to pray. She had missed her morning session anyway.

* * *

><p>Felix was slowly regaining consciousness. The first thing he noticed was a weight on his right leg. Slowly opening his eyes he saw a Shroomish sitting there. She saw him awaken and immediately started jumping up and down excitedly while saying:<p>

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Quickly Felix closed his eyes again and shook his head. The poison apparently had affected him more than he had anticipated. Listing again before opening his eyes, he could hear someone female mutter "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." over and over again. He could also hear an excited Shroomish bouncing on his leg. Reopening his eyes, he found the Shroomish still in the same place. Gaby he found kneeling, her head bent forward and her hands clasped as in prayer. She was in fact praying, as Felix notice her change her litany of "I'm sorry" into something about Mew. Returning his attention to the still bouncing Shroomish, he caught her midair and set her aside, rubbing his leg.

"Pardon me, you were getting heavy."

The Shroomish looking really guilty, sidled up to him and started nuzzling his side. Petting the plant Pokémon, he couldn't really be mad at it. She just acted in self defence.

"I see you're finally up."

Gaby had apparently finished praying. Glancing up to her, she stood in front of him, both hands on her hips.

"What were you thinking scaring that poor Shroomish? Serves you write. You were lucky I still had the Lum Berries!"

"Shroomish! Shroom Shroom." The small Pokémon's voice was muffled as she talked into Felix.

"I know. She scares me too sometimes."

Gaby huffed in indignation. "You should be more grateful, if it weren't for the berries….

"The berries you took from me?" He couldn't stop the grin.

"You were damn lucky in deed. If you haven't noticed you smashed everything in your bag while you were rolling around on the ground. The berries would have been mushed, too, or worse, eaten by now!"

"Well, technically I have eaten them now." He was still grinning. Something about just being poisoned must have some kind of influence on it. Shaking his head he became serious again.

"Thank you for saving me from a most unpleasant experience Gaby."

Gaby finally relaxed, she had been worried about him. She had actually prayed for him and the first thing he does after waking up, is poke fun at her.

"You're welcome. I do not want my future priest to die so soon."

"Soon?"

"Well, you will have to die eventually."

"Hm… I suppose you are right."

"Of course, I am always right."

Grabbing the Shroomish that was still beside him, he lifted her up on his lap. Why was he calling her "she" all the time? Shroomish had no visible differences between the genders. He did not know, it just felt right. Pulling out his Pokédex he noticed it had a few dents, but he was happy to see it still worked.

_Shroomish – the mushroom Pokémon_

_Shroomish live in damp soil in the dark depths of forests. They are often found keeping still under fallen leaves. This Pokémon feeds on compost that is made up of fallen, rotted leaves. If Shroomish senses danger, it shakes its body and scatters spores from the top of its head. This Pokémon's spores are so toxic, they make trees and weeds wilt. These spores cause pain all over if inhaled. _

"No kidding…" murmured Gaby.

Felix ignoring her, pressed a few additional buttons.

_Gender: Female_

Felix grunted at this. How had he known? Absolut mindedly scratching his lower back again, he looked at the Shroomish. The Shroomish looked at him expectantly. It was Gaby who had to state the obvious.

"I think she wants something from you…."

"Really?" Felix looked up uncertain. Glancing back he saw the Shroomish nod. "So… um…" Trying to scour his mind for something a wild Pokémon want after poisoning a trainer. He could only think of one thing.

"Do you want to join me?" Shroomish exclaimed loudly while jumping up and down.

"Great, but you do not have to do it out of guilt."

Shroomish stopped jumping and looked at him seriously. She did not say anything, just a look.

"Ok, it's your choice."

Gaby having caught on to Shroomish faster than Felix handed him a Pokéball. "Thanks" Tapping it against Shroomish, she got sucked in. The ball pinged immediately.

"Well, I guess I caught a Shroomish. Was this one of your Pokéballs?"

"Yes, seeing as you somehow managed to smash all of yours. Quite a feat, considering how durable they are."

Standing up, he collected his soaking bag.

"Let's roll, I really want to get out of this forest. By the way have you seen Byte?"

"Now that you mention it, no." Gaby looked at the spot where she last saw the Porygon. She became less sure of herself by the second. "Last I saw him, he was cursing at me."

"Why was he cursing at you?"

"Let's just say I didn't think to look for an Antidote right away. So I told him to back off."

"What exactly did you tell him?"

"Well, I presumed he was cursing at me, considering he was making those funny technical sounds he sometimes does. So I told him to stop and asked him what Mew would think of him when she saw him."

"Crap, you said that?"

"What did I do wrong?", Gaby asked defensively.

"Nothing, nothing. Byte has … issues." Sighing he rubbing his head. "Look, do you know how to get to Pewter City?"

"Yeah, of course I do."

"Good, I will go look for Byte. Meet me at the PokéCenter there."

Before Gaby could reply Felix ran off into the woods. Shouting Byte's name.

* * *

><p>He found his trusty Porygon at a small pond. He was resting beside it and looking into its reflective surface. Felix walked up and sat down beside him. Choosing to stay silent for the moment, he waited. His patience was rewarded after a while, with a quiet "Porygon"<p>

"I think Mew would say that you are a Pokémon. A fine one at that."

"Pory… Porygon"

"No I am not just saying that. I mean it. Dittos are able to Transform into Porygons. I am sure Mew would be able, too. And Mew caries the DNA of all Pokémon in her. Do you see my point?"

Porygon made a bitter snort.

"Your DNA just looks different. It still does the same thing."

They sat there in silence. Pokémon and trainer. Both looking into the surface, thinking their own thoughts.

"Pory…"

"You're welcome."

* * *

><p>Felix arrival in Pewter City was rather anticlimactic after the trip through the forest. This was not his first visit to Pewter City, so the PokéCenter was found easily enough. Spotting Gaby was no challenge either. Her bright pink clothes, sprung out immediately in any crowd. It surprised Felix that she was in fact at the center of a crowd, presumably preaching. Finding a path to Nurse Joy's desk he handed her his Pokéballs.<p>

"Could you do a checkup please?"

"Of course", looking at him intently, "so it's you, isn't it?"

Felix was taken aback by this question "Pardon me?"

Nodding towards Gaby, she continued. "It's you she has been talking about, isn't it?" Felix was still looking confused. "She came in this morning. Ever since she was telling the tale of a priest with blue eyes and brown hair, who went into the dark forest to find his lost Pokémon. Did you find it?"

Sighing he relented. "Yes, although knowing her she probably blew the whole story out of proportion. Wait priest? Blue eyes?" Searching for the next best reflective surface he started into it, blue eyes stared back. "How the hell?"

"Um… are you alright?" Nurse Joy asked concerned.

"I really do not know anymore."

"Ok… um… would you want a room? A lot of the crowd has not asked yet, and we only have a few left."

"Sure, does she have one yet?" Nodding towards the preaching girl.

Nurse Joy giggled "No, she hasn't even checked in any Pokémon yet. She came into the PokéCenter, stood on the next best empty table and started talking. Are you travelling together?"

Nodding Felix admitted "Yes, someone has to take care of her. Could I have two rooms then, please?"

"Of course, here you go."

Felix felt a hand on his shoulder as he was spun around.

"And here he is folks, the hero's triumphant return. You were successful, weren't you?" The last part she added quietly so no one could hear. He just nodded.

"Great, now as I was telling you …." She started off again, apparently forgetting Felix. He on the other hand was uncomfortable with standing in the lime light. Slipping her room keys into her side pocket, he managed to escape the crowd. Shaking his head at Gaby went to his room.

* * *

><p>A loud banging woke Felix from his nap. Sitting up straight, his hand immediately found his lower back again. It had been itching for a while now. Feeling around, he found a little bump right above his tail bone. <em>Great, a bug bite. Just what I need.<em> The return of the banging reminded Felix why he had woken up. Standing up, he opened the door to find a very angry looking Gaby.

"Is the room comfortable?"

Not sure what she wanted from him or why she was angry he just nodded. She was using a sickly sweet voice, which set off alarm bells in his mind.

"That is great. Would not want you to be uncomfortable. I will just have to sleep outside, because someone was to egoistical to think about their traveling companion!" The last bit she shouted at him.

"But…."

"I totally understand why you wanted the room, who would not want the last bed? At least you could have offered me to sleep on the floor!"

"Gaby, I…"

"Stop interrupting me!"

"Could you at least check your left pocket?"

Confused Gaby actually stopped yelling at Felix for a moment. Putting her hand into her pocket, she found a room key.

"How…?"

"Magic, now if you would excuse me, I was napping."

Felix closed the door and returned to his bed. Now if only the bug bite would stop itching.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours later Felix woke again. He felt refreshed. It is surprising how much being poisoned takes out of you. His hand immediately went to the bug bite, which he was pleased to see, was not itching anymore. His happiness drained from him when his hand did finally reach the place. The little bump was gone. There was however something else there. Standing up he raced to the bathroom. He could already feel the something that had grown pushing against his pants. Reaching the mirror he was looking for he quickly undressed and turned around.<p>

_That definitely should not be there!_ Growing right above his but was a tail. Which disturbed Felix on a whole different level was … it was pink! _What in Mew's name? Great, Gaby is rubbing off on me._ Slowly stretching out his hand he touched it. Yup, it was definitely a tail. It was not much longer than his hand and the fur on top of it was soft. The tail was rather thick, except at the base, where it was rather thin. A shiver ran up his back when his hand touched it and he could clearly feel his fingers on it. Felix tried to moving it and was surprised when it actually twitched. _Yes that is definitely my tail. How the…?_ It must be a dream. He was still sleeping. That would explain it. Sighing in relief he pinched his arm. He did not wake up. Frowning a bit, he tried again, actually yelping in pain this time. He did not wake up. Turning around he hammered his head into the next best wall. Felix fell to the ground and saw little pink stars floating in his eye sight, but he still did not wake up.

Crawling out of the bathroom he found his Pokéballs and released Byte and his Shroomish. The Pokémon first starred at their half-naked trainer lying on the floor. Then they caught sight of the little tail, swaying in the air.

"Please tell me that I am dreaming and I do not have a tail" His voice was quiet and he could hear the pleading tone in it. Both Pokémon slowly shook their heads. Felix's head thudded to the floor and he started to cry. He could handle his eye color changing or him getting slower. But a tail… a pink tail growing out of back side, he could not. He could hear and feel his Pokémon trying to comfort him, but Felix just cried. Why was it always him? Why? Couldn't he catch a break for once? Soon he had no more tears to shed, but he kept on lying there in his misery.

A knock at the door finally brought Felix back reality. Sitting up he called out:

"Who's there?"

"It's Gaby, can I come in?"

_Crap! _"Hold on a sec!"

Quickly collecting his pants and underwear he dressed himself again. His tail he just stuffed into his pants and found that his T-shirt covered up the small bulge. It wasn't even noticeable. Taking one more deep breath to calm himself he went to the door and opened it.

Gaby was waiting there with crossed arms, looking concerned.

"Are you… holy, have you been crying and what happened to you forehead."

Felix hesitated. "I woke up and found I had a tail and I freaked out a little", was what he should have said, instead he said:

"I tripped and hit my head. It hurt quite a bit." It was a lame lie and Felix really hopped that Gaby would buy it.

"Oh, ok. I was worried about you, why didn't you tell me that you were clumsy?"

Felix finally managed a smile. "Usually I am not. Gaby, this may come out of left field, but when did my eyes turn blue?"

Gaby cocked her head at the question. "Um… you had blue eyes all the time, well I thought you had green eyes the day we met but I think it was just the light and I did hit my head so … what do you mean by turned?"

Felix sighed and let his head droop "I did have green eyes the day we met, now I have blue eyes."

"Oh come on, blue eyes are not that bad. I mean I have blue eyes!"

Felix's head snapped up at that comment and he looked at Gaby. She did in fact have blue eyes. It wasn't the same shade of blue he had now, his was somehow clearer but they were blue all the same. _How did I fail to notice them up to now? _His eyes soon started to wander and he found himself starring at her pink hair, her pink bandana, her pink clothes… _oh yeah, that's why. _Gaby continued when it was apparent that Felix would remain silent.

"Blue eyes are great. It shows that one is blessed by Mew!"

This took Felix by surprise. "Wait, what?"

Gaby just rolled her eyes. "Haven't you ever seen a drawing of Mew? All of them show Mew with blue eyes. That means every person with blue eyes is blessed by Mew!"

Felix just starred at her. He was about to say something but was interrupted by his growling stomach. Both of them laughed at this.

"Ok, food time, we can continue talking while we eat."

* * *

><p>The cafeteria of the Pewter City PokéCenter was nothing to write home about. The food was ok, but at least it was cheap. With a full belly he even was convinced by Gaby to accompany her on a walk around town. They talked about all sort of stuffs and by "they" it was actually Gaby and "stuff" was Mew. Felix did not mind it had been too long since he felt this kind of companionship and he enjoyed it. He even managed to forget his tail.<p>

"… so then I walked up to him and said: Mew is not just any ol' kitten, Mew is… oh hey, it's my brother. Have you met him yet? You should! Hey Tanner!" Gaby started jumping up and down and waving her hands. "Tanner over here! Tanner!"

Felix perked up at the name and looking around he indeed managed to spot the boy he had ordered Porygon to Tackle. _Oh the irony. _He was not ready to face Tanner again, thinking quickly he turned to Gaby.

"I wouldn't want to be in the way of a family reunion. I can be introduced later, also I have something really important to do… yeah um… I have to go challenge the Gym. I got an appointment."

"But…"

"No need to worry, I will either see you later tonight or if I miss you lets meet up in the Lobby tomorrow morning, alright?"

Without giving her a chance to say anything Felix turned around and bolted. He really hoped Tanner had not recognized him, but knowing Gaby, she will tell him all about her soon to be priest who owns a Porygon. How many people are there who have a Porygon?

After running a few blocks he finally slowed down. _Might as well challenge the Gym now. It is a way better fate then returning to Gaby and admitting that I lied. _Sighing at the grave he had dug himself, Felix soon found himself standing in front of a large building made out of stone. Standing tall, he summoned all of the courage he could find and entered.

It was dark when Felix opened the door. Only the fading light from the street illuminated a small portion of the rocky battlefield.

"Hello, anybody home?"

With a bit of apprehension Felix walked in and jumped a bit when a voice called:

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"I am Felix Ferell from Route 2 and I am here to challenge the Pewter City Gym!"

"I, Forrest, accept your challenge. This will be a 2 on 2 battle and only you are able to substitute Pokémon. Do you understand the rules? "

"Yes, I do."

"Very well then, let us begin."

The lights suddenly went on, blinding Felix in the process. When he was finally able to see again, a young man was already standing in the trainer's box on the other side of the field. Felix quickly found his own.

"Yolanda will be referring this match." A teenaged girl, barely a few years older than him, walked up to the side of the field holding two flags. "And as a Gym Leader I will choose first. Go, Kabuto."

Felix looked at the ancient Pokémon. He really did not expect to see it, but he could handle it, he hoped. Pulling out his Pokédex he decided to scan it.

_Kabuto – the Shellfish Pokémon_

_Kabuto is a Pokémon that has been regenerated from a fossil. However, in extremely rare cases, living examples have been discovered. It protects itself with a hard shell. The Pokémon has not changed at all for 300 million years._

_Luckily I got Shroomish. Damn I really need a nickname for her. _

"Let's do this. Go Shroomish."

His Shroomish materialized on top of a rock. It came to Felix's mind that he hadn't checked Shroomish's moves yet. Not wanting to look like an armature now he decided to wing it. _She must know the basic set of attacks. _

Yolanda raised one of her flags. "The first battle will be between the Gym Leaders Kabuto and the challengers Shroomish. Begin!"

Felix took the initiative. "Let's start of slow. Tackle it!" To his relieve Shroomish jumped off of the rock and started racing towards the Kabuto."

"Kabuto, Harden." Forrest calmly replied. Kabuto lowered his head exposing his shell. It seemed to be gleaming in the light. Shroomish hit it full force. Unfortunately she bounced of harmlessly. At that moment it occurred to Felix that he might not be ready for a Gym Battle yet.

"Now Scratch that Shroomish."

With a speed he had not expected from a rock Pokémon the Kabuto shot forward and started Scratch his Shroomish. It looked bad. He definitely was not prepared for a Gym Battle. _Well time for the back-up plan. _

"Shroomish release your spores!" Felix crossed his fingers. He may not know exactly what Shroomish could do, he knew first hand that those spores hurt. It only had to take effect.

Shroomish seemed to shudder under Kabuto's attacks, but a small cloud of spores started to form around her. Kabuto continued his attacks for a couple of seconds before he stopped. Felix was not sure if Shroomish managed to paralyze or poison him. It was hard to read the facial expression of a Pokémon who only had two large red eyes. The Kabuto was now clearly shaking. _Maybe Shroomish managed to poison and paralyze him. That would be a lucky break. _

"Kabuto, fight through the pain. You can do it. Keep up those Scratch attacks you almost have it!"

Hearing his trainer Kabuto continued his attack. It was clearly paralyzed as he was not able to connect all of the Scratch attacks. Shroomish was just not fast enough to get away.

"Shroomish use Absorb!" Felix shouted out in panic. It tore at his heart seeing his Pokémon being beat up like that. "Please know Absorb, please know Absorb, please know Absorb" he muttered to himself. Felix gave a small cheer when Shroomish shot a red beam from the top of her head. Kabuto being so close to Shroomish had no chance to dodge. The beam hit Kabuto directly in the face, catapulting him backwards.

"Get up Kabuto and use Mud-Shot!"

The Kabuto was immediately back on his feet. Felix hoped it was tired, he still could not read it.

"Try and dodge it"

Yet again, his Shroomish was too slow. The mud hit Shroomish in the face, effectively blinding her.

"Uh-oh…"

"Uh-oh is right! Kabuto get in there and finish it!"

For the third time Kabuto shot forward. Felix knew that Shroomish had no chance to dodge and tried to recall her, but fumbled with the Pokéball and dropped it. Sighing he looked down to pick it up.

"Kabuto is unable to battle! The winner is Shroomish!"

Felix head snapped up at the announcement. Indeed, Kabuto was lying directly in front of Shroomish, who was still blinded by the mud. Apparently the poison finally got to him. Felix cheered and he could feel his tail twitch. Picking up the Pokéball he recalled her. "Good job, take a good rest." He turned to the referee. "I won't be using Shroomish anymore. She can't find with all that mud in her eyes." Yolanda nodded once. "By request of the trainer, Shroomish is unable to battle." She raised the flag and pointed it towards Forrest. The gym leader also recalled his Pokémon.

"Well, I have to say, I did not expect those Spores to be that effective. But you are only half way done. Time for round two. Go, Steelix." Throwing another Pokéball, a huge Steelix materialized on the field. It went right up to the ceiling. Felix gulped audibly. How did anyone expect him to beat that? Hoping for inspiration he pulled out his Pokédex.

_Steelix – the Iron Snake Pokémon_

_It is said that if an Onix lives for over 100 years, its composition changes to become diamond-like. A more likely theory is that its body transformed as a result of iron accumulating internally from swallowing soil._ _Steelix live even further underground than Onix. It chews its way through boulders with its sturdy jaws. Its eyes can see in the dark underground. This Pokémon is known to dig toward the earth's core, reaching a depth of over six-tenths of a mile underground._

"It's not even a rock Pokémon." Felix said more to himself than anybody present.

"Well, it used to be an Onix."

Shaking his head Felix pulled out his last Pokéball. "Go, Byte!"

"Cool, a Porygon. I haven't seen one yet. Can I maybe have a closer look at it after the battle?" Felix was taken aback. He somehow expected Gym Leaders to be tough trainers. This childlike behavior was contrary to his believes.

"Um… sure, why not?"

"Awesome, but now we have to battle." Forrest became serious again and looked at Yolanda.

"The second round will be the Gym Leaders Steelix against the Challengers Porygon. Begin!" She raised both flags.

"Well, let's get at it. Byte, let's start things with a Psy Beam."

As ordered Byte shot a colorful beam at the Steelix and again it hit head on. Felix was again disappointed to see that his first attack did absolutely nothing.

"Nice try. Now it's our turn. Steelix, Rock Throw!" Smashing it's tale on the ground, huge boulders shot up in the air. With another wipe of its tale. The boulders were catapulted towards Byte.

"Quickly dodge"

Byte dodged most of the boulders by flying out of the way. Unfortunately he missed the last one. The force of the attack sent him flying against the wall.

"Byte, we better use Conversion2"

Recovering from the blow, Byte glowed white. When the glow stopped, a metal Porygon was revealed. Both trainers stared at the Porygon. One with amazement the other with growing despair. Felix had just noticed a small flaw.

"That was sooo cool, but also stupid. Steelix grab it with bind." Still a bit dazed from being smashed against a wall Byte was too slow to dodge the incoming attack. Steelix wrapped his tail around the metal Porygon and began to squeeze. Being now a steel Pokémon it did not bother Byte much, but Felix could see where this was going.

"Byte, try to get out of there!"

"Steelix, would you please hold that Porygon to the ground, while you use Earthquake."

The Steelix actually smashed his tale into the ground. With the rest of his body, the Steelix mad a weird looking jump. When he landed the whole building shook.

Felix winced. That had to hurt.

After the shaking stopped the Steelix let got and returned to his Trainer, awaiting further orders. Felix was unable to see Byte from his position. Yolanda actually had to run up to the crater the Steelix had created to check on Byte.

"Porygon is unable to battle. The winner of this match is the Gym Leader Forrest!" This announcement and a raised flag signaled Felix's defeat. Being finally able to leave the trainer's box, he rushed to the crater to find an unconscious Porygon at the bottom of it. Gently petting the top of Byte's head he said: "You did great. It was my fault we lost. We'll do better next time." After recalling Byte to his Pokéball he climbed out of the crater again to find Forrest waiting for him.

"It was a good match Felix. It was bad luck that Porygon turned into a steel type."

"Thanks Forrest."

"Anyway, how about you come to my brothers breeding center tomorrow. It is near the outskirts of town. I am sure he would love to see your Porygon as well."

"Thanks again."

"You should go the PokéCenter now. I will see you tomorrow."

A hand shake, a business card with the address of the breeding center and a short walk later Felix found himself explaining his battle to Nurse Joy. She had heard these kinds of stories a lot of times and she always gave the same piece of advice.

"How about training, before challenging the Gym again?"

Felix nodded, he had had the same thought. But where should he train? He did not want to do it in Town. He was afraid that a more experienced trainer would see and laugh at him. That left the forest or some of the mountains surrounding Pewter City. The choice was fairly easy. He would go for the mountains, seeing how he was poisoned the last time he entered Viridian Forest. He wouldn't be able to reach Mt. Moon but something had to be close.

The sun was starting to set when he finally got his Pokémon again. After conversing with Nurse Joy about directions, Felix set out.

* * *

><p><em>And I am back with an extra long chapter to start of the new year!<em> _So what awaits us this year? Hopefully I am able to end this story, seeing how I started plotting some new ideas and I really want to start writing them. __Next up is that I hope that I can get a grip on grammer. If you see any improvement let me know, I could use some motivation. Also thanks for all the kind reviews, keep them coming. _

_IcecreamSyndrome:__ I am thrilled that you keep pointing out these refrences I put in. It is great having you as a reader :D_

_NanoCarp:__ Thanks! This is not the first project I ever worked on, this is only the first one I ever published online. Also I read a lot so I have some basic idea how a story is supposed to look like. For some strange reason I am opposed to the idea of getting a beta. Is it pride, prejudice or even zombies? I do not know, but may as well look into it._

_Also a small question, would you prefer smaller chapters but at a more frequent rate or longer chapters at a slower update rate? _

_That is it for now. _

_benthefirst, signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow AWAY!  
><em>


	7. Flashy Night

Chapter 7

Training Session

It took Felix a while to find a spot he liked. But after a while he found himself standing on top of a small plateau. He had a clear view of the dark silent forest beneath him. The stars in the cloudless night sky gave him enough light. Taking a deep breath of the cool fresh air Felix managed to relax. He even considered letting his tail out, but left it were it was. He did not want to deal with it at the moment. It could wait.

Felix was here for a reason. After enjoying the scenic view for another minute he pulled out his Pokéballs and released his partners. They were both subdued. Byte of course already knew that they had lost and Shroomish gathering it from the expressions of the others. Felix clapped his hands making both Pokémon jump.

"Alright, listen up! We have a few things that we will be doing tonight. First thing is first. We need a nickname for you Shroomish." The Pokémon in question exclaimed happily.

"Hm… let's see, how about Sunshine?" Shroomish face fell and Felix creativity was rewarded with a dirty look.

"Ok, then how about Sara?" This name was apparently acceptable as Sara expressed her happiness and approval by jumping into Felix's chest and cuddled him. Felix was knocked back by the attack, but he had to laugh at the gesture. Lifting the Pokémon off him, he sat up.

"Great, so we are doing some training tonight. I know you a probably getting tired, I know I am, but let's get as much done as possible." The Pokémon agreed. "Alright, let us work on some speed. Rock types are supposed to be slow, but they still managed to catch us."

* * *

><p>So the training began. First Felix ran up and down the mountain with his Pokémon. It surprised him how much stamina he had, considering he rarely did any sport. Sara had the most trouble considering how short he legs were. Byte on the other hand, just tried to fly faster. Shortly before midnight, he called for a break. He had seen some improvements, but he doubted that it would be enough. Totally out of breath by now, he instructed his Pokémon to practice their attacks, allowing him to rest. Sara practiced her Tackle, considering how using Absorb against an inanimate rock is kind of pointless. Byte however had fun with his Psybeam. After the first couple of tries, he managed to break the rock he was aiming at. Soon after he was blasting rocks left, right and center. Felix let him get rid of some of the frustration that he must have felt after losing against Steelix. Seeing as how the sleep deficit was catching up to all of them, Felix ended the training session. Gathering his two partners around him, Felix reviewed their first training session.<p>

"The first training session was a success. The problem is still speed, but we won't be able to fix that overnight. We will have to do some running every day. Byte you did quite well with your Psybeams. Was it fun?" Byte nodded, pleased with himself. "Well that leaves one problem. How are we going to win in the Gym? We are just not strong enough." Felix slumped forward as a realization hit him. "What am I even doing here? I am just another rookie trainer, unable to beat the first Gym. Forrest probably has to deal with hundreds of my kind on a daily basis. How am I ever going to make it to the league?"

"I wouldn't say you are just another trainer."

Felix's heart nearly stopped has he heard the voice behind him. Quickly spinning around he found a man standing there. This stranger was wearing a well cut business suit with purple stripes, which reminded Felix of lightning bolts.

"If you were just another trainer, you wouldn't be here training." The experience was surreal. Why was this man, who apparently watched him training, in the middle of the night, on top of a mountain, just standing there and trying to boost his self-confidence?

"Um… excuse me, who are you?" Mister Business, as Felix dubbed him in his head, just chuckled.

"I am just a man who likes rocks. I have already reached my goals and now I am enjoying life. You however are still working towards yours." Felix just nodded.

"I am curious, why did you come here to train? There must be some good training grounds near Pewter City."

Feeling a bit ashamed, Felix mumbled the answer. "I didn't want to be seen and laughed at."

Again Mister Business chuckled. "You really need to work on your self-confidence. Trust me, I know a thing or two about being a Pokémon Trainer. If you do not believe in yourself, neither will they." The man pointed at the Pokémon. Felix felt his checks go red. It had never occurred to him how his outlook on things might affect his Pokémon.

"Tell you what. I have something in base camp that might help you with your battle. We could also have a little midnight snack. "

"Sure, why not?"

Getting to his feet, Felix gestured his Pokémon to follow him. Although he had no idea who this man was, he was knowledgeable and Felix was ready to learn.

* * *

><p>The base camp of this guy was actually quite disappointing. All that Felix could make out where large stacked boxes. Chuckling at the Felix facial expression Mister Business explained. "I am leaving tonight, that is why everything is packed." The man walked to a box opened it and pulled out a cooler. In it was the promised midnight snack consisting of bottles of water and chips.<p>

"I believe we haven't introduced each other properly. I am Steven Stone, rock enthusiast."

"Felix Ferell, rookie trainer." The name Stone rang a bell, but Felix could not place it. It was moments like this he wished that he paid more attention to the news.

"So tell me Felix, how did you get a Porygon?"

"It was my starter." Steven raised his eyebrows in surprised. "Let me explain."

So for the next 20 minutes Felix recounted the story of how he got Byte and an abbreviated version of his journey so far. Felix conveniently left out any parts concerning his own body During the story, they ate, drank and found a place to sit on top of one of the boxes.

"...I was about to wrap up the training session, when you scared the living daylights out of me."

"Sorry about that." Leaning back Steven considered Felix. "I like you, kind of remind me of myself at that age." Steven contemplated something further before saying "Ah, what the hell. It is not like they could fire me. Come on, you have to get up so I can give you a gift."

Felix jumped down from the crate and watched as Steven started rummaging around in it. He soon pulled out an antenna, laptop and some hard drive looking device. Sitting on the floor Steven booted the laptop and attached the antenna. The screen radiated a blue light. From my position, I could see a log in screen with some kind of corporate logo in the background. Steven started entering his username when he stopped. He looked apologetic at Felix.

"Felix, do not take this the wrong way, but I will have to ask you to recall Byte."

"What? Why that?"

"I am about to log onto a secure server and I would be in very much trouble should a Porygon somehow gain access to it. It is protocol. Nothing really I can do…"

It took a moment before Felix understood what Steven meant. The robotic voice of his Pokédex came into his mind _Porygon is capable of reverting itself entirely back to program data and entering cyberspace. _Nodding, he turned to Byte.

"I am sorry Byte, but I really want to see what Steven has for us. I'll let you out as soon as he is done." Byte gave a short nod. He was clearly not happy with the situation. Pulling out his Pokéball, Byte disappeared in a flash of red.

"Thank you, let's see now…"

Steven started typing. Soon different windows and loading bars appeared on the screen. This was way beyond Felix's area of understanding, but Steven clearly understood what he was doing because he kept typing away. Felix relaxed and stopped trying to read everything that was on the screen. All of the flashing suddenly stopped when one loading bar reached 100% everything on the screen disappeared and another log in screen appeared. This time the corporate logo in the background was from Silph Co. _What the… why does he have access to Sliph Co.?_ The login screen was soon passed and was replaced by the opening and closing of windows and loading bars. Soon the screen flashed with one message _Plug-in external hard drive in order to continue! _One quick hand motion from Steven later it was replaced by a single loading bar. Once it reached 100% Steven clicked a couple of keys and the screen turned black.

"That's all, you can let your Porygon out again. You may as well do it now, because the stuff on this hard drive is for him."

Felix was about to release Byte, but stopped when he heard a deep rhythmic whooping sound. Steven cocked an ear as well.

"Ah… they are finally here." Quickly stowing all the gear he had pulled out of the boxes, he grabbed a long cylindrical object. "You probably should close your eyes."

Curious as to what would happen next Felix did not comply. Steven pulled at the top of the object and a bright red light erupted from it, blinding Felix. Cursing he turned away and spotting Sara, picked her up to shield her . The whooping sound drew nearer and soon was replaced by the whine of a jet engine. The helicopter landed just as the flare died out. As soon as the chopper touched down, men jumpd out and started to load the boxes. A smartly dressed woman suddenly appeared at Steven's side.

"Mister Stone, you have a meeting in the morning at 7 AM, also Professor Birch called again. You wanted his input on our new product."

"Yes, yes. I know, stop nagging me." Sighing he looked at Felix. "I wish you luck on your journey. If you need some help or advice call me. Wait a sec." Quickly running towards the helicopter, he grabbed something and returned. "My card is the bag. The other items are a gift, seeing how you smashed your supplies."

"Thank you, Steven." The lady huffed in indignation at Felix's use of her boss's first name.

"Sir, we are ready to lift off."

"Very well then. Felix, how about it? We could give you a lift back to Pewter City."

"No, no, no, no…. I am fine, I like hiking, really!" Felix answered quickly, shaking his head vigorously.

Steven gave him an odd look. "It's your choice, until we meet again." Steven boarded right after his secretary and as soon as the door closed behind them, the copper flew off. All was said and done in less than 90 seconds.

The depature of the helicopter returned the mountain top to it's quite state. Felix first examined the contents of the bag and chocked in surprised as he found Full Heals, Full Restores and Ultra Balls. A small business card lay on top and Felix had to hold it close to his eyes in order to read it.

"CEO and President of Devon Corp.?" He exclaimed loudly. Talk about a random encounter.

* * *

><p>"Shroomish?"<p>

"No Sara, if we break it open, everything in it will be destroyed."

The group of two Pokémon and one human was sitting on the ground, contemplating the device that Steven had given Them. It was clearly a portable hard drive. They had however no clue as to how Byte could profit from it.

"Shroomish, Shroom Shroom-ish."

"No, Sara, I do not believe that Byte should eat it."

"Shroomish, ish-oom"

"No, I cannot plug it into Byte, he doesn't have any…." Hit by a sudden realization. Byte was technically a computer program and as such he could enter Cyber Space. He tried so hard to see Byte as a Pokémon, he had actually begun to overlook one of his abilities.

"Byte, could you enter this hard drive. You know, by turning back into data?"

Byte gave him a long look before slowly moving forward and touching the hard drive with his beak. As soon as Byte touched it, a flash blinded them all. Rubbing his eyes in order to see again, Felix was unable to make out Byte. What he could see however was hard drive in front of him glowing eerily. Another flash blinded Felix for the third time that night. When his night sight finally returned, Byte was standing in front of him. He was no longer a Porygon, however.

"Wow, you're smaller." Was the first thing that came to his mind.

His new Porygon2 made computer noise and gave him a small peck with his beak. Petting the top of Byte's head, Felix added.

"It is great that you evolved. Now we can surely beat Forrest." Sara started exclaiming loudly.

"Of course we could not do it without you, Sara." Felix stood up and grabbed one of the Ultra Balls, enlarging it.

"So let it be known to the world, that after a good sleep and another day of training, we will return to Pewter Gym and stomp Forrest into the ground." The Pokémon called out in agreement.

"Alright then let's do it!" Felix shouted and threw the Ultra Ball. There was a stunned second of silence.

"Ah crap, I did not just do that."

The whole group rushed after the ball. They could hear it bouncing on the rocks up ahead.

"Please do not roll of the cliff. Please do not roll of the cliff. Please do not roll of the cliff."

As if cursing it the sound of the ball bouncing grew fainter and fainter, shortly after the group reached a cliff. They could still hear the faint noise of the moving ball.

"Damn it. Why do I keep losing my supplies? This sucks so much. I swear that…" Felix was interrupted by a flash of red light that appeared somewhere at the bottom of the mountain.

"What? It can't be..."

The group waited, but no second flash came.

"No way…"

* * *

><p><em>Yet another chapter done! Not a lot happening in this chapter, but it was a good place to stop. The next chapter will be much better in that regard and longer. <em>

_Also,_ _thanks for the kind reviews!_

_NanoCarp: Thanks for pointing out the broken sentence. Another thanks for the constructive criticism. That is what I am looking for. I will try and do better in future chapters. _

_That is all for now, see you guys soon._

_benthefirst, signing out_

_Boom Boom Pow Away!  
><em>


	8. Here It Goes Again

Chapter 8

Here it goes again… 

"Let me get this straight…" Gaby said slowly. It was close to midday and a very tired Felix had retold his nightly adventure.

"First off, you lost and then went training in the mountains." Felix nodded. "At night." Again a nod. "You meet the president of Devon Corp. who not only gives you to the tool to evolve Byte but also sets you up with new supplies." Felix again nodded in confirmation. "You then go on, to throw one of the balls off the side of the mountain and you accidently catch a Pokémon that does not even live in that part of Kanto."

"That about sums it up."

"No way, that happened!"

"But…"

"I can see you meeting that business guy and him helping you, but never ever, not even with Mew's help did you get that Pokémon like that."

"But…"

"Do not "but" me! You know, you do not have to be ashamed if you traded a Pokémon. How would you even find a Pokéball in the dark, when you are standing on top of a mountain?"

"Byte flew…"

"Fine!" Gaby threw up her arms in exasperation "Don't tell me what happen. I thought we were friends. Come on, let's go to this funny breeding thing you got invited to." Gaby stomped off. Felix followed like a beaten dog and muttered under his breath.

"But it's the truth."

Gaby suddenly spun around marched up to him again. "That reminds me. Did you order Byte to Tackle my brother?"

Felix shrank away from the now towering Gaby. He felt his tail trying to get between his legs. It was rather weird having your emotions being broadcasted like that. Unable to speak, he just nodded.

"Great job! High five!"

* * *

><p>The breeding center was located at the outskirts of town. After getting lost a couple of times they did manage to find the building. It was rather nondescript, only a small sign declared to the world that Brock's Breeding Center was open for business.<p>

Felix stopped to look at the sign. It couldn't be that Brock. Looking back at the business card to double check, this was in deed the Pewter City Breeding Center Forrester mentioned.

"As I was saying you do not have to feel bad for tackling my brother. He is a jerk anyway. Got really involved with a bad crowd. Now he is part of the Church of Arceus and he is really serious about it, too. Have you seen that stupid necklace his been wearing? What's wrong, are we lost again?" Gaby finally noticed that her travelling companion had stopped.

"It's Brock's Breeding Center…"

"Oh, so this is it?"

"Yeah, but it's Brock's…"

Felix was in some kind of daze. Just a few hours ago, he was talking to Steven and in a few short minutes he would be meeting Brock.

"So what?"

"So what? Do you have any idea who he is?"

"Um… a breeder?"

"He's not just any breeder. He is one of the best breeders in the world. He is the author of 22 books and received a plethora of awards."

"And, all the breeders are the same." Gaby waved dismissively "They are all creepy and just sit around all day and watch Pokémon mate. I mean, come on."

Felix did not answer instead he was looking at a spot directly above Gaby. She just groaned._ So typical_. Turning around, she indeed saw a man she assumed to be Brock, if his name tag could be trusted. She tried to smile but was unnerved by the fact that Brock was wearing a full length apron and holding two shopping bags. It was Brock who spoke first.

"Hello, are you the trainers my brother invited?"

"Yes, sir.", both of them answered at the same time.

"No sir for me, it's just Brock. Let's get inside and we can have a bite to eat. My brother only mentioned one , but I am sure I can handle."

A Pokémon shouted from somewhere inside of the building. Seconds later the front door flew open. "Blissey", the Chansey-look-alike exclaimed again, before tackling Brock, lifting him without any effort and running back inside. Brock yelled in pain, when his head hit the door frame.

Felix and Gaby just starred dumbfounded. "How about we follow him?" Gaby just nodded.

* * *

><p>The food was excellent, no scratch that. It was beyond words. Nothing was said as the food was devoured. Even as Forrest made his entrance, he just grabbed a plate and dug in. Only after the food started dwindling did conversation began.<p>

"I have to say Brock, that must have been the best food I have ever eaten." Felix finally said.

Forrest, who was still busy with his plate, looked up, brandished his fork once and continued eating.

"Thanks, I had a lot of practice over the years."

"I have to admit, I still cannot fathom that I am sitting next to you. I mean, I read all of your books. I especially found the one about the mating habits of inorganic Pokémon fascinating. You know the…"

"Felix!" Gaby finally interrupted. "I just had a wonderful meal and I want it to stay in my stomach. Could we not talk about that?"

Brock chuckled "She does have a point. Well, I do have a something for you guys. Once my brother called I put aside a Pokémon egg. Unfortunately, my younger brother informed me about only one trainer coming." Brock threw is brother an angry look. Forrest was still paying attention to his plate and missed it.

"So how about you try to figure out who gets the egg, while I'll get it."

Both trainers patiently waited for Brock to leave the room before turning on each other.

"I was invited here, so the egg belongs to me." Felix immediately said.

"What? That is unfair, you already have three Pokémon, besides taking care of an egg needs a woman's touch." Gaby countered.

"What, it does not. All you need to do is carry it around you and keep it warm and my third Pokémon does absolutely nothing, it does not count."

"I wouldn't even trust you to carry a steel bar. Do I have to remind you that you somehow managed to smash Pokéballs? Also, I think you are exaggerating, your Pokémon must do something."

"I was poisoned, after you scared Sara I might add. Want to bet it is useless? Here, look."

Pulling out the Ultra Ball, Felix released the Pokémon inside. A Slowpoke materialized. Forrest took a small pause from his indigestion to throw a quick glance, before taking seconds and continuing to eat.

"Slowpoke, use Watergun on Gaby." Gaby instinctively threw up her arms, but the attack never came. Glancing at the Pokémon she noticed it didn't even budge at the command. The waited a good ten seconds before Felix ordered.

"Ok, try Tail Whip." Again nothing at happened.

"Good, now try to take a step forward." Still no reaction from Slowpoke.

"Just blink for me once, please?" Felix was almost pleading with his Pokémon.

"Ok, maybe you were not exaggerating. You seem to have got the short end of that trade."

"I did not trade him!"

"Whatever, a Pokémon is a Pokémon that means you have three and I have two. We have to get on equal footing."

Felix was about to answer when Brock came back with an incubator. Every last ounce of hope of getting the egg died when Felix saw the color. It was pink. In a flash Gaby shot up and took the incubator from Brock.

"Thank you Brock, I'll take it from here."

Felix just nodded in agreement at Brock's questioning look. He retook his seat and while Gaby was cooing over the egg, he leaned in to Felix.

"I am glad to see you are mature enough to back down."

Whispering back Felix said "Sometimes, it is just not worth the argument."

Brock nodded sagely "If you are able to recognize that at your age, you are already wiser than I was."

Felix turned to Gaby. She was now cradling the egg and singing to it. Deciding it was the perfect moment, he asked.

"Gaby, would you mind if I borrowed Abra for the rest of the day?"

Immediately she stopped singing and looked up.

"Why?"

"I want to do some training with him." Seeing the look on Gaby's face, quickly added "I won't be shooting any attacks at him."

"Sorry, no can do."

"Why that?"

"Because I will be challenging the Gym."

Forrest chocked on a piece of food. "Now?"

At the same time Brock and Felix asked. "Gym?"

"Of course, in order to enter the Indigo League, I will need all of the badges." Looking at the still stunned faces she asked "What, did you think I would do something girly, like enter contests?"

Quickly back peddling all of them replied. "No, of course not."

"No one pays attention to you, if you are just another pretty face with pretty Pokémon. Come on, mighty Gym Leader, I challenge you." Grabbing the older boy at the scruff of his neck, she started to pull him out of the room.

"What, wait… ow … let go, I haven't seen the Porygon yet."

"It's not a Porygon anymore, it evolved."

"Aw, man, now I really want to see it."

"You'll see it when he challenges you again, now come I want my badge."

Forrest bowing to the inevitable freed himself from the girls grasp. "Ok, ok, I am coming. See you soon." With a quick wave, the pair hurried to the Gym.

"Wow, she really is a force of nature." Brock said into the now silent room.

"Do not get her started on her religion." Brock nodded, apparently taking the advice to heart.

"I have a couple of Abra's here, you know. I am sure one of them is willing to help you out."

Felix looked at Brock. "That would be great, does that mean I can train here as well?"

Brock shrugged "Sure, why not. There is more than enough room in the back. I might even be able to give you some pointers."

"Alright let's get to it then. By the way, what kind of egg was it?"

"It's a surprise." Brock said with a slightly evil grin.

* * *

><p>It was getting dark when Felix finally made his way back to the PokéCenter. It had been a successful day of training. Both Sara and Byte had learned new moves. His Slowpoke just stood around all day and did nothing, but some people classify standing completely still for hours straight as exercise. Hoping that he was taking the right turn, he walked onto an empty street. The sigh was audible as Felix could see the red glow of the PokéCenter off in the distance. With a new spring in his step, he started walking down the street. He made it about half way when a clocked figure suddenly stepped out from an alleyway and turned to him.<p>

Felix froze. He was glad there was still a 30 feet gap between them. He just stared at hooded person, not able to recognize any features. The figure returned the favor just stared back, not moving a muscle. For Felix it felt like they were standing like that for ages and just when he considered going for one of his Pokéballs, the stranger suddenly turned and walked into the alleyway.

Carefully Felix approached the alleyway and glanced into it. It was a dead end and no clocked figure in sight.

"Strange…"

* * *

><p>The singing of the Pidgeys announced the start of the new day. Turning around in bed he sat up and stretched. Last night he tried sleeping on his stomach, so his new appendage would be comfortable and was rewarded with an excellent night's sleep. He felt great and was ready to tackle the day. It was one of those mornings where you felt you could achieve anything and nothing could go wrong. He released Byte and Sara.<p>

"Good morning you two, are you ready to win a badge today!"

The two Pokémon started to cheer but quickly subsided as they got a better look at Felix.

"What do I have something on my face." Felix jokingly ran his hand over his face. As the Pokémon remain unresponsive a foreboding thought came to his mind.

"Something changed, didn't it?" Sara and Byte both nodded in conformation.

Felix had the feeling he was marching to the gallows, as he walked towards the mirror. Racking his face with his eyes, he did not find anything out of the ordinary. As his eyes wandered he caught sight of his ears. Their shape seemed wrong. Turning his head to get a better look at them he just gapped.

"What the hell? Fox ears? Seriously?"

His ears had indeed turned pointy and their shape was kind of different. Luckily they were devoid of any kind of fur. They were just... pointy.

"Well, it could be worse. At least I did not grow eight more tails." Felix said to no one in particular. At the mention of his tail, he looked at his back side to check on it. It had grown about half its size again. What intrigued Felix, was that only the thin part of his tail seem to grow. _I hope it does not grow too much. How will I hid it if it does?_ Deciding now was not time to dwell on the problem of changing body parts. He turned back to his Pokémon, who were watching him with worried looks.

"It's ok guys. It looks weird but nothing life changing like a tail. Let's get our breakfast and then go beat Forrest. "

Breakfast also turned out to be a not-so-joyous occasion. Once he had entered the cafeteria a pink blur thrust something small right into his face. Felix had to back up in order to even focus on the small object.

"So, I see you won your badge?"

"Of course I did. What did you expect?"

During the whole meal Gaby regaled him with stories of her battle. The first battle was her Abra against Forrest's Graveler. It had been a close match but Abra managed to beat him with a final confusion which threw a Rock Throw back. Next Forrest chose his Rhyperior, which got rid of Abra with a single Rock Wrecker. Gaby then threw her Igglybuff into the fight, which surprisingly won. Apparently Rhyperior wasn't able to hurt it anymore after it gave it a hug and a kiss. Who knew that cuteness could be dangerous?

"… so after Igglybuff touched Rhyperior again, it just keeled over and pretended to be unconscious. Forrest just facepalmed and … what did you do to your ears?"

"I stuck them into a pencil sharpener and turned it in order to make them pointy."

"Ow, wouldn't that hurt, why did you do it?"

"I was joking. I woke up with it. Maybe it has something to do with my eyes."

"Well, it looks weird."

"Thank you."

Felix's mood had seriously declined since the moment he had woken up. It did not help that Gaby announced that she would be watching his battle today at the Gym. _Ah well, what could possibly go wrong now?_

* * *

><p>The gym was still as Felix remembered. Even the small crater was still there were Byte was punched into the ground. He had to cringe at the memory. Forrest and Yolanda were there again, as well. Diffrence to last time was that Gaby was now sitting in the stands. She had put the egg incubator on the seat beside her and propped it up with her bag to give it the ideal view of the battlefield.<p>

"This is a rematch between Felix Ferell of Route 2 and the Gym Leader Forrest. It will be a two on two battle and only the challenger will be able to substitute. The first to knock out all of the opposing Pokémon wins." Yolanda dutifully announced.

"Kabuto, I choose you!"

_Well here it goes again_ "Sara, it's time."

"The first round is between Kabuto and Shroomish. Begin!" Yolanda raised both flags signaling the begin of the match.

"I see we are both sticking to the same Pokémon as last time. Let us see how your training paid off. Now would you kindly?" Forrest said with a grin.

"Why thank you kind, sir. Sara, do nothing."

Taken aback, Forrest ordered "Well, in that case. Kabuto, Mud Shot!"

"Dodge and close the gap!" With a small flick of one of Kabuto's claws mud shot towards Sara. The Shroomish leapt over the attack and started running towards her adversary.

"I have seen enough battles to know where this is going, Kabuto Harden!"

Kabuto cowered down again exposing its shell to the incoming Sara. Felix could not help but smirk, he had actually fell for it.

"Sara, shoot a Leech Seed, then land on top of him and release your Spores again."

"Uh oh…"

The seed shot from Sara's head and hit Kabuto's shell dead on. Immediately vines sprouted from the seed encasing Kabuto. The leeching effect of the vines paralyzed Kabuto long enough for Sara to be able to land on him. Shaking her whole body, the spores covered all of Kabuto before he could throw her off. The damage was however already done as he immediately bent over in pain.

"Sara, follow it up with a Mega Drain!"

A huge red beam erupted from the little Shroomish. Kabuto never stood a chance. His body turned red as all the remaining energy was sucked out of him. Soon the light faded and Kabuto dropped to the ground.

"Kabuto is unable to battle. Victory goes to Felix and his Shroomish!"

"Good job, Felix. Keep it up! I want to leave Pewter City today!" Gaby called encouragingly.

"A perfect example how a simple mistake can cost you the battle, you did well Kabuto, that was my fault." Forrest said to his Pokémon as he recalled him. "Alright Steelix, you are up!"

"Sara return, Byte you're up." Felix called out as he swapped his Pokémon.

"Oh cool, your Porygon really did evolve. That's just awesome!"

"The second round is between Porygon2 and Steelix. Begin!"

Once again the flags were raised.

"Alright Byte, let's start off with Psybeam." Felix decided to take the initiative. The colorful beam shot out and hit Steelix, who merely shrugged it off.

"Steelix use Rock Tomb!" Smashing his tail on the ground, Steelix cause a shockwave to go through the ground. As soon as it reached Byte, rocks sprouted up around him, encasing him.  
>"Great now smash the tomb with your tail."<p>

Steelix roared in triumph as he brought his tail smashing down. Small pieces were sent flying everywhere. Once the dust settled all that was could be seen was a new crater in the Gym floor, but no Porygon2.

"Great escape Byte, now use Psybeam again!"

"How…?"

A colorful beam erupted behind a rock, hitting Steelix directly in the back. Steelix called out in pain and surprise.

"Great, get in close with Agility."

Only a blur of movement revealed to Steelix and Forrest were Byte had been standing. Within a blink of an eye he was standing directly beside the giant steel snake.

"To your right, smash it with your tail!"

"Teleport away and use Psybeam!"

Felix was relieved to see that Byte managed to port away in time. They had practiced that move a lot yesterday and although Byte was able to relocate his position, but he was way slower at it than Abra. From the other side of Steelix a Psybeam erupted and hit the large snake. Seconds later Steelix's tail went crashing through the general area. Sending rocks flying.

"Keep it up, Byte."

Another Psybeam hit and another. The Steelix was getting slowly annoyed by the elusive Porygon2.

"He's to your right, now your left, behind you!" Forrest tried to keep.

"Now Byte!"

There was a sudden pause in the action. Steelix panted as he looked around for Byte. The battlefield was utterly destroyed by now. Felix had a creepy little smile on his face. How he hoped that his plan would work.

"Steelix, it's on your head."

Steelix eyes swung up in order to see Byte. His tail swung upward. With an elegant little jump Byte jumped off in time. Steelix was not able to stop the moment of his heavy tail and it collided with his own head. There was a moment of silence before Steelix groaned and went crashing to the floor.

"Steelix is unable to battle. The victory of the match and battle goes to the challenger!"

Felix smiled. The day was saved after all. Releasing Sara, he hugged both of his Pokémon.

"Thank you!", he whispered into their ears. Looking up he found Forrest standing in front of him again. He was sporting a goofy grin.

"Those were some neat strategies you used. If you improve that much after each training session, you'll go far. Here, your reward." In Forrest hand was an octagonal silver badge. Felix took it and held it up to the light.

"One down, seven to go."

Gaby appeared chose that moment to appear at his side. "Well, it took you long enough. Can we leave now? Pewter City is nice and all, but I am kind of getting sick of all the rocks."

* * *

><p>They said their good byes and collected their travelling kits from the PokéCenter. While Gaby headed towards the rest room for one last time, Felix chose to send his dad a quick e-mail.<p>

_Hey Dad,_

_just wanted to let you know that I am still alive. My trip through the forest was uneventful, apart from picking up a travelling companion. I met a couple of cool and important people already. I seem to attract them. As I just won my first badge, we will be heading out towards Cerulean soon. Hope all is well at home. _

_Love, Felix_

"Are you ready yet?" Gaby asked impatiently as she returned. Backpack saddled and the incubator held protectively in her arms.

Felix quickly hit the send button and logged off "Yeah, let's go."

* * *

><p><em>There we go, another chapter done. I would like to thank everyone who left a review. They really help motivate me to sit down and write. Also we now hit the 25k word mark. Time to take stock. Did my writting improve? Am I actually getting worse. Anything else you want to tell me? Leave it a review or pm me. <em>

_ IcecreamSyndrome: Don't you worry. I will make sure that it won't become to easy for him. Muhahahaha!_

_Complete the Circuit: I completely derped on that. I even remember googling the diffrence between latter and ladder as I used both in that chapter and I still got it wrong :( Thanks for pointing it out.  
><em>


	9. Across the Mountain

Chapter 9

Across the Mountain

Mt. Moon was now looming in front of the trainer duo. It had taken them a good part of the day to reach the entrance. First they got lost, because Gaby insisted on chasing after a Pokémon she saw. Needless to say, they never found said Pokémon or any other for that matter. As soon as they gave up the chase, it started to rain. Really hard. That taught the two young trainers a valuable lesson. Waterproof and water resistant are two different things. Gaby's incubator was water proof. The egg and the electronics inside both stayed dry. The rain coats Felix and Gaby were wearing, were only water resistant. Both were soaked within the first hour. Not wanting to sleep in the Mt. Moon tunnel systems, they found a small empty cave. The first thing they noticed when they set up camp was that their rucksacks were only water resistant. Secondly, the lasting rain dampened any hopes of a fire, leaving Gaby and Felix to sit around the incubator in the vain hope to catch a shred of warmth radiating from it.

"Really wish I had a fire typ." Gaby said with chattering teeth.

"Me too." Felix said with a wishful sigh.

"Too bad you can't choose what Byte converts in. I would kill to have a flaming Porygon right now."

"Yeah, also who says his body would turn hot. I never had him convert in a fire type before. We need to do something so we can at least … wait maybe I can!", Felix exclaimed as his expression lightened with hope as an idea formed in his head.

"You can do what?"

Not answering Gaby he pulled two Pokéballs from his belt, soon after Byte and Sara materialized in the cave.

"Alright you two we could really use your help. Byte we need you to use Conversion2 to turn into a fire type."

"Pory!"

"I know there are limitations to that move. That is where Sara comes in. I want you to hit Byte with an Absorb. But tone it down, we only need it to trigger Conversion2."

"Shroomish?"

"Gon!"

Both Pokémon exclaimed at the same time. Felix sighed, Pokémon training seemed a lot like what he imagined to be parenting sometimes.

"Yes Sara, you heard correctly and Byte I am sure Sara would not hurt you on purpose. Just imagine it was a training session. So if you please, we could use some heat in here."

Sara and Byte both looked at each other, then shrugged. Lowering her head, Sara shot a tiny red beam at Byte. After the Mega Drain she had used in the Gym battle, this was laughable. As soon as the beam hit Byte, she stopped. Once the glowing of Byte's Conversion2 subsided it revealed a more or less green Porygon2 that seemed to be made out of leaves and vines.

"Bad luck, would have been too nice anyway." Gaby sighed.

It took a total of nine tries to get the right conversion. It appeared they ran through all the types that were resistant to fire and once they were done they started to repeat. On the bright side, they were able to see some of Byte's other forms. Felix especially liked Dragon Byte and how his crystalline scales glinted. After the conversion glow was gone and revealed a Byte who appeared to be on fire both Gaby and Felix cheered. They were even more pleased to discover that Byte's body was actually giving of heat. Byte agreed on staying in that form for the rest of the night and the two trainers immediately set out there things so they could dry. Sara decided that her Pokéball was more comfy and returned herself.

The cave was soon covered with varies pieces of clothing, sleeping bags and different pieces of equipment. Once his stuff was placed around Byte, Felix was considering taking of his clothes. Byte's body was radiating a lot of heat by now and the cave was getting cozy. Not sure how he should act around Gaby in this situation he threw her a glance. Apparently she had no such qualms, considering she was taking off her shirt at the moment. Glad to finally get out of the wet clothes, Felix followed suit. He was about to unbutton his pants when he froze. He could not take off his pants or Gaby would certainly see his tail. Of course once he thought about it, he came fully aware that his tail was uncomfortable at the moment. It was wet as everything else, but what made it worse was the fact that it had fur.

"Oh… that is so cute!"

Confused Felix looked up "What is?"

Gaby was beside Byte in nothing but her underwear. "You being shy of course. I do not mind and if it makes you feel better I'll promise not to look."

Felix blushed. He didn't want to say "That's not the problem.", but she would surely ask what the problem was afterwards. So he did the only thing that was left, he bailed out

"I'm going to step outside for a minute. Need to pee."

Gaby gave him a dirty look. "I so needed to know that."

Outside Felix just stood there, contemplating. In one hand he was holding his tail. It had grown again and now almost reached to his bellybutton if he wrapped it around his hip. The other hand tried absolute mindedly to wring some water out of the fur. The rain however was still pouring and any headway he made was immediately reversed. But he did not do it to get his tail dry, but to give his hands something to do. He thought about telling Gaby about the tail. It could make his life so much easier. But on the other side, she could freak. She would most certainly freak. It was a tail, after all! She would think him a freak and continue her journey without him, or she would freak even more when she notices that it was pink. Felix wasn't sure what would be worse. Making up his mind he hid his tail in his jeans again and returned to the cave to tough out what would certainly be a very uncomfortable night.

* * *

><p>The next morning was bright and more importantly dry. A groggy Gaby and Felix were amazed to find that all of their stuff was dry again. Apparently the heat from Byte had been enough. This had earned him an appreciated pat on the head from both trainers after he converted back. The bags were quickly repacked and the camp site quickly cleaned up and within a blink of an eye a quick breakfast was eaten and both trainers were standing in front of the entrance to Mt. Moon.<p>

Felix looked into the dark tunnel. "It is going to be awfully dark in there. I really wish that this goes smoothly. No wild Pokémon attacks, no getting lost. You would think after all these years that they would build a proper road between Cerulean and Pewter City." Discreetly he rubbed his tail through his pants. He had slept on it all night and it hurt now.

"Yeah, but look on the bright side. There is this awesome mountain were a lot of Pokémon can live in peace. This mountain gave a lot of travelling trainers an adventure that they still remember fondly today. My dad still talks about how he met a Clefairy. I really want to meet a Clefairy as well. Oh, and talking about the bright side."

Gaby rummaged in her backpack for a minute before pulling out a small flashlight.

"I sure hope it still works."

"Why shouldn't it? It dried like everything else, didn't it?"

A quick test did indeed prove that the flashlight was still operational. Armed with the flashlight in one hand and the incubator in the other, Gaby led Felix into the mountain.

* * *

><p>"Man this sucks." Gaby whined. They had not seen a single Pokémon since they had entered. Gaby, who was still leading with her flashlight, searched every tunnel and cave they came across for a sign of a Pokémon, but so far, no luck. They were pretty sure that Pokémon were there, seeing how they could clearly her an Onix dig through the mountain or hear the squeaking of a Zubat swarm.<p>

"Felix, did you maybe use some Repels this morning?"

"No, I do not even have Repels." Felix quickly answered. He was not taking the blame for this.

"Then why are the Pokémon avoiding us? Oh, look a Geodude!" Felix looked around Gaby. There was a Geodude jumping towards them. It stopped to shield its eyes however when Gaby pointed her flashlight at it.

"Gaby, I think you are blinding it."

"Oops, sorry…" She quickly redirected the beam so that they could still see Geodude. The rock Pokémon was rubbing its eyes to gain his sight back. It slowly opened one eye then the other. It looked at them for a second before its eyes widened. It quickly turned around and rolled away using Rollout.

"Ah…. you scarred it, come on, let's chase after it!"

"Gaby, do you remember how our last chase ended?"

"Don't be such a spoil sport, it can't rain in here. Come on, it is getting away."

Not wanting to be deprived of his only light source, he followed Gaby. The Geodude was fast but somehow Gaby always managed to spot a shadow.

"Gaby, I think we should…"

"No, I am sure it is getting tired. Maybe we'll run into a Clefairy."

"Gaby, do you hear…?", Felix slowly asked, as he could clearly hear a rumble.

"Felix, you are starting to become annoying. We will…"

"Gaby, watch out!" Launching forward Felix grabbed Gaby by the backpack and pulled her back. A couple of feet in front of her an Onix suddenly burst from the wall. Roaring once, it went straight into the opposing wall. It took a few seconds for its whole body to pass through the tunnel, before it disappeared again. A silence fell, as the sound of the digging Onix faded.

"Wow, how did you…?"

A cracking interrupted Gaby and both starred at the ceiling. Another small cracking noise was heard and both understood its implications. As one they turned around and ran. A roaring erupted behind them as the tunnel collapsed. Both trainers screamed as they could feel small rocks and a veil of sand hitting their backs. Once the roaring died down, they allowed themselves to stop. Felix was bent over trying to catch his breath. Glancing at Gaby, he could see that she was alright. At the moment she was clutching the incubator to her chest, as if her life depended on it. She wasn't carrying the flashlight anymore, but its light was still shining somewhere, so Felix assumed it was ok.

"Gaby, are you ok?" Felix finally managed to ask.

"Yes… I think that qualified as an adventure we won't forget?"

"Oh yes, it surely does." There was a short pause, before Gaby asked.

"How did you know the Onix was coming?"

"I could hear the rumbling get louder and it seemed to come from the side. It was nothing more than a hunch I decided to act on." Felix answered honestly.

"Well, thank you…" Gaby was embarrassed and tried to cover up. "I'll get the flashlight, give me a sec." Turning around she sprinted up the tunnel.

Felix sat down and tried to calm himself. He was shaking all over now as the adrenalin slowly left his body. Rubbing his eyes he tried to stop his tail from twitching as it was rather uncomfortable. Lowering his hand he could what appeared to him as a small sun coming nearer in his peripheral vision. He turned his head to face Gaby and the flashlight.

"Aaaahhh!" Gaby suddenly screamed as she dropped the flashlight yet again. Felix thinking she had seen a threat jumped up and turned around. Byte's Pokéball was already in his hand. The tunnel, however, was empty. Facing Gaby again he looked at her quizzically. She was clutching her incubator again.

"What's wrong?"

"Your… your eyes…" Felix could feel his stomach lurch. What had happened to them.

"What is with my eyes?"

"They were glowing…"

"Glowing?"

"Yes, yes, exactly. Wait a sec…" Gaby bent down and picked up the flashlight. She slowly pointed it at Felix's face.

"There, there glowing again. Look!"

"How am I supposed to look at my own eyes?"

"Oh… right…" Gaby repeatedly pointed the flashlight at Felix's face and at the floor.

"It seems like your eyes are reflecting the light."

"That's not possible."

"Well, that is what they are doing." Gaby deadpanned, after a few more minutes where she tried to get Felix's eyes to glow she started laughing.

"What is it now?" Felix asked annoyed.

"It just occurred to me that you reminded me of a Meowth, with those funny ears and the reflective eyes. Oh, I think I will start calling you Mr. Snuffles."

"Why Mr. Snuffles?"

"That is an appropriate name for a kitten, don't you think?"

"I am a kitten now? Great, I was demoted from future priest to kitten." Felix's voice was now dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't talk like that Mr. Snuffles. It sours your attitude. Let's get going. I think Mew tried to tell us we spent enough time in Mt. Moon. We better listen." Without looking back, Gaby marched on.

Felix sighed heavily. He really, really wished that Gaby would soon forget all about that. He wasn't sure if he could stand being called "Mr. Snuffles" all the time. Seeing how easily distracted she was, he could possibly divert her attention. _If she comes up with something like that already, I do not want her to find out about my tail. She would go nuts._ Resigning himself to his fate, he followed the light.

* * *

><p><em>Finally done with the chapter! You can't believe how happy I am. This chapter really kicked my butt. I had to rewrite it several times until I was happy with it and still it doesn't feel like it's been writing to the best of my abilities.<em>

_Anyway, like every chapter I would like to thank those people who reviewed and subscribed to the story. You guys are the fuel that keeps this machine running. You and all the sugary pop I drink._

_IcecreamSyndrom:__ Yes, Porygon could learn Teleport in the first generation, TM 30 to be exact. :D_

_Bronyman5000:__ Noooooo! You figured it out! Now I have to rewrite the whole story D:_

_Complete the Circuit:__ If you are really curious about the dude in the cloak. Send me a pm with your suspicion. I could tell you if you're wrong or right. It wouldn't spoil to much :P _

_Jeffrey Seven:__ If I ever get 100 reviews there will not only be a party, but free internet cookies for all!_

_That's all for now. _

_benthefirst, signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	10. The Shocking Cerulean City Incident

Chapter 10

The Shocking Cerulean City Incident 

Within ten minutes of having the near death experience Felix and Gaby found the exit. Both reveled the warm feeling the sunlight left on their skin. They had managed to cross Mt. Moon within hours. It must have been a new record. While Gaby stuck her face towards the sun like some overgrown pink plant, a small pile on the road caught Felix's eyes. _What do we have here? _Moving over and kneeling down he found a pile of Sitrus Berries.

"Why would there be a pile of Sitrus Berries on the road?" he asked the question out loud he was unable to answer.

"There wouldn't, wild Pokémon would collect them." Gaby answered calmly still basking in the suns glory.

"Then what is this then?" Gaby finally turned her head in Felix's direction. She had to blink several times in order to see again.

"Huh, indeed. Why would someone leave so many berries just lying around?"

"Exactly, what should we do with them?"

"Take them of course, it clearly is a gift from Mew. We wouldn't want to anger her by refusing her generous gift. "Not giving Felix a chance to argue she marched forward and collected the berries. Not that Felix would have argued. If someone or something left him a pile of berries to find, he would take them. He remembered that he had found Lum Berries in a similar fashion.

"Come on Felix, let us get to Cerulean City. I want to keep on going as long as Mew is watching over us."

"Sure, let's go."

* * *

><p>Felix soon found himself in the Cerulean Gym. Gaby had dragged him in here as soon as they had entered the city. She wanted to capitalize on the Mew luck they had. Felix wanted to go train some more, but his arguments were ignored. So now he was standing in front a ferocious looking red head. This red head was Misty, the Gym Leader. To Felix's dismay she accepted the challenges Gaby issued for both of them and picked him to go first because she liked his ears. The battle itself went better than expected. He had been up against Staryu and Starmie. His team consisted of Sara and Byte again, seeing how his Slowpoke was still unresponsive. Sara was able to hold her ground against Staryu but lost eventually. It was an unfair battle seeing how Staryu could easily attack and dodge using the pool to its advantage. She did manage to land a Mega Drain however, so it wasn't a complete loss. Byte was fantastic. Seeing how he could levitate through water just as well as through air and didn't need to breath he mitigated any advantages Misty's water Pokémon had. Felix was now able to outmaneuver Misty and take her Pokémon by surprise. Byte quickly cleaned up Staryu and expertly took out Starmie. After hugging his Pokémon he received the Cascade Badge.<br>Gaby was not so lucky. First she was up against a Politoed. Abra did good work and was able to pull out a win. Misty's second Pokémon was a Gyarados. Abra fought valiantly but was soon overpowered. Her Igglybuff never stood a chance. Once she called it Gyarados gave it one disdainful look and sent it flying with one simple huff. After that embarrassing loss, she also had to endure Misty's wrath. She was pissed that Gaby had used a baby Pokémon that clearly was not able to battle yet. Felix decided to intervene and divert Misty's attention, as Gaby looked close to tears.

"Excuse me Misty, why is that Psyduck playing with the pool controls over there?"

Misty looked up to see in deed her Psyduck.

"Damn it Psyduck, why can't you behave once?" She ran off to put the Pokémon back into its ball. Felix used this distraction to pull Gaby out of the Gym.

* * *

><p>Gaby was quite and that worried Felix. Any attempts at starting a conversation failed miserably and that worried Felix even more. Shortly before arriving at the PokéCenter Gaby let out a long sigh.<p>

"She was right, you know?"

"Who, Misty?" Felix could feel the weight lift from his shoulders. It was good to hear Gaby talk again.

"Yeah, you were also right…"

"Me?" Felix asked in surprise.

"Yeah, we should have trained more. If I ever want to reach the Indigo League I will have to do better."

The tone in her voice made Felix worry again. Gaby sounded … defeated.

"Are you alright?"

"No… but I will be. It was a hard lesson but I had to learn it and I am glad Mew made me overconfident so that I would fall on my nose. I better myself so I won't disappoint Mew."

Gaby was slowly getting her old spark back and life was returning to her eyes.

"Anyway, less about me and more about you. You won your second badge today all by yourself! And to think I knew you when." She added playfully. Felix was feeling uncomfortable.

"I didn't really do anything special."

"Bah, you did better than me. That alone is something special all by itself."

They reached the PokéCenter by then. Quickly they deposited their Pokémon with Nurse Joy and collected their room keys. After all of the necessities were taken care of. Gaby grabbed Felix and pulled him to the cafeteria. Pushing him onto a bench she said.

"Let me treat you, seeing how you finally were able to beat me at something."

"I would rather have lunch…"

"You can have lunch afterwards, treat first."

Bowing to the inevitable Felix waited patiently. Gaby quickly returned with two beautiful red apples.

"I was going to get some ice cream but these just looked to good. Here, enjoy."

Felix accepted the offered apple. Holding it up slightly, he said.

"Well, to my second badge."

Gaby bumped her apple against his in a toast.

"To your second badge."

Both took a bite at the same time. It was scrumptious. The apple was sweet and the juice more or less exploded from it once you took a bite. Felix savored every second. Swallowing he lifted the apple and took another bite. Something was wrong this time. It felt something pocked him in the gums. Pausing a moment he open his mouth and removed the apple. Throwing a glance at it he froze. Not only was the skin red but also the flesh. And sticking from the bite mark he had just made was a tooth. In a daze he raised his other hand to his mouth and felt for his teeth. He felt cold when he noticed that one of his was actually missing. While he was feeling for the gap just to be sure, the tooth adjourning the gap suddenly moved and popped out as well. It fell onto the table with a clatter. Gaby looked up at the noise and starred at Felix. Felix was sitting there eyes wide in horror a bloodied apple in one hand and the other bloodied as well was feeling his teeth. Both of them were frozen in shock. Another tooth fell onto the table.

"Nurse Joy!" Gaby screeched.

* * *

><p>The day rapidly got worse for Felix. The teeth did not stop falling out and soon he was left toothless. Nurse Joy had called the ambulance and he was taken to the local hospital. There he was lying in a bed, waiting for the doctors to return with their diagnosis. He had been through various x-rays and examinations. The doctors had also taken various samples of various bodily fluids. Luckily for Felix the doctors were only interested in his mouth what caused them to miss any anomalies located on his rear. Felix was contemplating his journey so far when the door opened to his room opened and Gaby entered.<p>

"How are you feeling?"

Felix gave her a dirty look. "Real peachy, who cares that I have to eat soup for the rest of my life?" He had trouble pronouncing "s" sounds correctly, which made him sound ridiculous in his own opinion.

Gaby was rather uncomfortable. She simply held out two Pokéballs and a Ultraball.

"I brought you your Pokémon…"

Felix's face softened, as he accepted them. "Thank you"

Gaby pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. "You want to talk about it?" She really was worried about her up and coming priest. Something was up with him, she just knew it.

"What would I want to talk about?" He did not manage to look her in the eyes, while saying that.

"Oh, I don't know. How about you losing all of your teeth for starters. Or the fact that your eye color and ears changed. What is going on Felix, maybe I can help you."

"I do not know, I really do not know…" Felix said quietly. Tears started to form in his eyes. "I just do not want to anymore."

"Here, here now…" Gaby leaned forward and hugged the crying boy. Felix melted into the hug and let lose all of the angst and uncertainty that had been building up. Tears now flowed freely into Gaby shoulders.

"Why me? Why always me? Can't I live a normal life?" Everything he said was interrupted by muffled sobs. "I do not want to anymore. I want it to stop. I want a normal life. I want my mommy."

Gaby now swayed slightly in the attempt to calm the boy. "Why don't you go home and visit her?"

Felix did not answer, he just kept on crying. After an indeterminable amount of time, his tears finally dried and the sobbing subsided.

"I can't…"

"Why not?"

Felix broke the hug.

"Thank you Gaby, I needed that." She gave him a stern look but decided not to press.

"So are you ready to talk about it?"

"There is not much to talk about. My eyes changed, my ears changed and now this. I have no clue how or why."

"Gosh, that must suck."

The door opend at that moment and one of the doctors who had examined Felix that day walked in. He had a portfolio in his hand which he was studying.

"Hello again Mr. Ferell, all the results are finally in and I have to say… oh… who are you?" The doctor, his nametag red O'Conner, finally looked up from the portfolio and was shocked to see Gaby.

"I'm a friend." Looking at Felix she said. "I do not have to hear this, you can tell me the short version later. I have stuff to do anyway." With that she got up and left. Dr. O'Conner watched her go, still a surprised look on his face. With a slight shake of the head he started anew.

"Anyways, the results are finally in Mr. Ferell and I have to say that they are quite… interesting. What especially intrigues me are the x-rays. Here take a look." He pulled a black and white piece of plastic out of the portfolio and handed it to Felix. He had to hold it against the light in order to see it probably. It was and x-ray of his jawline. His face bones looked stretched, as if he put to fingers in each side of the mouth and pulled. His jaw however was nice and straight. There was his gums, in this picture it was only a faint lines. Small bumps and craters marked the place where his teeth had been. In his gums, clearly recognizable, where more teeth. These teeth however clearly did not belong to a human. They looked predatory all of them were sharp and pointy and the canines were clearly pronounced.

"As one can clearly see, you will have a third set of teeth. That set however is not human. After some research, my colleagues and I could identify it as feline."

"Feline? How could you tell?"

"Well, that part was rather easy. There are only 30 teeth in total here. Humans have 32 you see. That was the first step, then we looked at how many from each kind of tooth there is. On the bottom you have three incisors, one canine, two premolar and one molar left and right. On the top you have three incisors, one canine, three premolar and one molar. That is your dental formula. It divers from the human one quite severely. Once we had the formula we simply looked it up and it corresponds to the dental formula of felines."

"So what does that mean, I'm a cat?"

Dr. O'Conner chuckled. "Mr. Ferell, you are most certainly not a cat. But just looking at you shows me that you have some… um… cat like aspects."

"So, is it dangerous?"

Dr. O'Conner rubbed his chin in contemplation. He hmm'd and haaa'd a bit while he locked at the different items in the portfolio again.

"Well, I can't really say. Apart from a weird blood panel, you look healthy enough. All of the wounds in your mouth healed well enough and any residual bleeding stopped. All of these things could be explained by some freak genetic mutation, but that would be an easy way out. There has to be a better explanation for it. To be on the safe side, you should stay here a while, just to run a few extra test."

"I'll think about it." In truth he already had. He did not want to stick around and give them more opportunities to find his tail.

"Alright Mr. Ferell, I will check on you later again. You can decide then."

Dr. O'Conner gave a small little bow before leaving the room and closing the door behind him. Not ten seconds later he came back.

"I almost forgot. These were collected for you. There are yours after all." He handed Felix a small plastic bag. It contained all of his old teeth.

"Thank you, doctor."

"No problem, Mr. Ferell." Dr. O'Conner did his small little bow again he left for the second time.

* * *

><p>Felix sat there for a long time, looking at his teeth wondering if he should keep them. They were his teeth after all, but recognizing how stupid the idea keeping a bag of teeth was he threw them into the garbage bin. Feeling alone and half-wishing that Gaby would come back, he grabbed the Pokéball of his starter and released him.<p>

"_Analyzing surroundings. Result: unknown medical ward. Inquiry in trainers health?"_Byte said in a monotone robot voice as he materialized. Felix gabbed at him.

"_Health of trainer compromised. Inquiry in missing denturs?" _Felix rubbed his eyes trying to accept the fact that he could fully understand Byte. He always felt like he could understand Byte, but not like this. Truth be told, he saw it coming.

"_No response, body emits signs of distress. Inquiry in the mental and physical status of trainer?"_

Felix took a deep breath and looked at his starter. "I can understand you know…"

Byte gave him a surprised look.

"_Comprehension was not available before?"_

"Well, I caught the meaning of what you were saying but never what exactly you were saying."

"_Noted. Previous inquiries still remain valid."_

"I lost all of my teeth in another transformation. It was a bloody mess and I was brought to the hospital."

"_Duration?"_

"I want to go now, but I want a second opinion if I should stay or not. I do not want them finding my tail. On the other hand the doctor said all of these changes could be dangerous."

"_Superficial scans of your anatomy show no signs of illness. Deeper scans may provide additional data."_

"So…., do you think I should go?"

"_Affirmative"_

"Alright, then. Let's get out of here then."

Felix collected all of his belongings which had been brought from the PokéCenter and left. Later when Dr. O'Conner returned, he found that his patient missing. A call to the front desk confirmed that a Mr. Felix Ferell had released himself from the hospital, not even ten minutes ago.

* * *

><p><em>And there we have it, we are officially in the double digits now. I know I am a bit behind schedule, but I had important things to do. Really, no lie! I had to test an ASHPD, rescue my girlfriend from a ghost pirate and figure out in which castle the princess is so I could save her. If you know what I am referring to<em>, _congratulations, you are as much of a geek as I am. _

_As always I would like to thank all of the people who left a review. A special shoutout goes to the suprising amount of readers in Luxembourg. Who would have guessed? _

_That is all for now._

_benthefirst, signing out. _

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	11. Research

Chapter 11

Research

Felix was glad to be out of the hospital. He had expected to encounter more resistant when signing out, but it was as simple as "Please sign here and here". He had to return Byte to his Pokéball however, seeing how non-staff Pokémon are not allowed in the hospital due to the possibility that they could be carrying contagions. How a Porygon could carry a contagion was beyond Felix, but rules were rules. He also hoped to meet Gaby on his way out, but no such luck. The receptionist remembered a girl dressed all in pink leaving in a hurry. Oh well, maybe he would find her preaching his story in the PokéCenter again.

Contrary to his believe he did not find Gaby in the PokéCenter. Even Nurse Joy had not seen her return yet, she did still have a room, though. Felix deciding that Gaby was a big girl and could talk care of herself and wanting to get away from the stares, retreated to his room. Wanting to talk some more, he released Byte.

_"Analysis of surroundings unnecessary. Room in Pokémon Center."_

"Do you always do that when you are released?"

_"Affirmative, knowledge of ones environment is necessary for survival."_

Felix chose not to answer that. He was more interested in something else.

"In the hospital you said that deeper scans on me were needed to see if I was ill, can you do those kinds of scans?"

"_Negative, insufficient hardware."_

"Ok, what could do those scans?"

_"There several objects capable of that action. Most of them are unattainable."_

"Why that?"

_"Insufficient funds."_

"Ok, you said most. Which ones are attainable?"

_"The Pokémon Encyclopedia has enough hardware and computing power to recognize most Pokémon throughout the world. Line of sight is not even required." _

It took Felix a moment until he understood that Byte was referring to his Pokédex. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up so Byte could see.

"What, should I point the Pokédex at myself? I am not a Pokémon how is that supposed to help."

_"All known evidence indicates that trainer is mutating. These mutations are non-human. Pokémon are the most prevalent species in the world. A logical place to start looking for the source of the mutations. Once the nature of the mutations is known, the mutation can be defined as either malignant or benign."_

Felix's eyes glazed over at all the technical terms Byte was using. "Do you mean that if we know why I am changing, we will know whether it is good or bad?"

_"Affirmative."_

"And to find out why, we need to know what I am changing into?"

_"Affirmative."_

"So you're basically telling me I am turning into a Pokémon."

_"All the evidence indicate that is the most probable scenario."_

There was a moment of silence as Felix digested that. He knew growing a tail was weird but did that mean he was turning into a Pokémon? He could become some kind of catman or something like that.

"I really hope you are wrong."

_"That circumstance is improbable." _

"Who would have guessed that you would be so full of yourself?"

_"Mathematics cannot lie."_

Felix sighed and opened up his Pokédex. It immediately filled with information about Byte. Taking a deep breath he turned it around. The whole room was silent as Felix and Byte waited for the verdict of the Pokédex. Only a small green monotone blinking light indicated that the Pokédex was working. Finally it beeped.

_Pokémon unknown._

Felix's heart sank. It had labeled him as a Pokémon. It did not say _No Pokémon found_, it said _Pokémon unknown. _That would mean that something it was pointed at had some Pokémon in it and that something was Felix. Grabbing in his tail he pulled it out, so he could look at it. Was this some kind of Pokémon tail and if so, to which did it belong too?

"Byte, could you do me a favor? Could you enter my Pokédex and search for Pokémon who have a pink tail? I know I can somehow get the results myself, but I rather have the answers now."

Byte flinched and even slowly started to edge away from the device. _"Negative, I am a Pokémon."_

"Byte, I know you are a Pokémon and I told you already multiple times how I feel about that topic. But you are a Pokémon with a unique skillset and I really would appreciate the help right now."

Byte seemed to take a long sigh.

_"Alright Felix, only because it's you."_

Before Felix could express surprise in Byte's change of tone, the Porygon moved forward and touched the Pokédex with his beak. With a flash of light he was gone. The Pokédex was now emitting funny sounds and a lot of zeros and ones appeared on all of the screens. After a few seconds all turned black and Byte's voice emitted from the Pokédex.

_"Search results will now be displayed." _

The screen light up and to show a Slowpoke.

"Nope, that can't be it" The screen changed to show a Chansey. "That's not it either. Can you narrow the results to feline Pokémon only?"

_"Applying new filter."_

The next picture was an Espeon. "Now that is more like it, but it is still not right. My tail does not split at the end. Are there any others?" The screen changed to a Skitty. "Well that is totally off. Are there any more?"

_"No further matches could be found."_

"Are you kidding me? There are no other pink cat Pokémon which have tails?"

_"The Pokémon Encyclopedia has limits. Any information that has not been verified will not be shown in this encyclopedia."_

"What do you mean by that?"

_"Example: There is no verified picture of Arceus." _

"Ok, that makes sense."

_"Also take the numerous undiscovered Pokémon in account."_

"You are right again… Maybe it is a cross between two Pokémon, a kind of hybrid."

_"A possibility that needs to be taken into consideration, although unlikely."_

The pause slowly spread. Pokémon and Trainer lost in their own thoughts. It was Byte who restarted to conversation.

_"I could search various databases for additional information."_

"What do you mean?"

_"The Pokémon Encyclopedia has an uplink. It sends information about all of the Pokémon encountered to Oak Laboratories for analysis. This uplink could be used to connect to various databases across the regions to gain additional information."_

"So you are basically going to hack various computers to look for information?"

_"I prefer the term "to gain access". This process however will take a considerable amount of time. Additionally the connection to the Pokémon Encyclopedia needs to be kept active."_

"Alright, I was planning on sleeping anyways. It is getting kind of late. We'll take a look at what you found in the morning."

Instead of answering the Pokédex started to beep repeatedly. Looking over it he saw that the screens were filled with ones and zeros again and Felix assumed that Byte had gotten to work. Muting the Pokédex so he could sleep, Felix changed and threw himself into the bed.

* * *

><p>Felix had a weird dream. He dreamed that he was visited by a green fairy. The fairy was happy to see him and wanted to play. Before he could play with the green fairy however a pink one appeared. The pink fairy berated the green one for not following the rules. It said a lot of things most of which Felix did not comprehend. What struck Felix as funny is that the pink fairy had the same voice as Gaby. After finishing with the green fairy the pink one turned to Felix.<p>

"What should I do with you now? You know too much already. We'll just have to change that."

"What? Do you expect me to forget everything?" Felix asked, suddenly frightened. The pink fairy laughed evilly.

"No, I expect you to die." And it raised a hand.

Felix shot straight up. It took him a moment to realize that it was all a dream.

"Ok, that was weird." He muttered to know one in particular. What struck him as even weirder was that he was lying on the floor. _Must have rolled out during the dream. _Standing up he checked on Byte only to see that he was still working. Yawning, he returned to the comfort of his bed and dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p>The morning brought a new sunrise, a new day, breakfast and no Gaby. Deciding to stay at or at least near the PokéCenter as long as Gaby was AWAL, Felix sat down at a computer terminal and fired it up. His dad had answered his mail.<p>

_Dear Felix, _

_It was nice to hear from you although I would have appreciated a call even more. I am glad that you were able to make new friends so glad. That is one of the reasons why people go on their journey, to form friendships that will last. Who did you meet that was so important, I am actually quite interested. How are your Pokémon doing and were you able to beat Misty? _

_Please call soon._

_Love_

_Dad_

Felix bit his lip. He did not want to call his dad. If he did he could see all the changes and he did not want his dad to treat him differently. He had to think of something. Pressing the reply button, he wrote.

_Dear Dad, _

_I wanted to call you here, but the machines are out of order. First off, the bad news. I was injured and taken to the hospital. You do not have to worry. It looked a lot worse than it actually was. I was out of there within the hour. I met Steven Stone near Mt. Moon. He actually gave me some strange disk that made Byte evolve. Byte is my Porygon, by the way. And did you know that the Pewter Gym Leader is the younger brother of Brock, the Brock the breeder? I also managed to capture two new Pokémon. Sara, a Shroomish, and a Slowpoke. Sara and Byte are my current active team. The Slowpoke is rather unresponsive. I also managed to beat Misty on my first try. At the moment I am waiting for my traveling companion to appear again. I haven't seen her in a while. I'll call once I reach the next PokéCenter._

_Love Felix_

Felix reread the message for any mistakes and clicked send. Then he jumped about 3 feet in the air as an angry voice called out behind him.

"There you are. Why did you not tell me you were released?"

After checking that his heart hadn't gone into cardiac arrest he turned around to find the elusive Gaby glaring at him fists firmly pressed against her hips, incubator at her feet.

"I left the hospital shortly after you went. I was hoping to catch up to you, but you were already gone."

"I was training, were else should I have been?"

"How was I supposed to now?"

Sighing in exasperation Gaby threw up her hands. "Never mind, let's get out of here. The Thunder Badge awaits us."

"Wait, you still haven't beaten Misty yet." Gaby silently held up a Cascade Badge with a smirk. "How…?"

"I will tell you once we are on the road. It's a fresh day and I want to get as far as possible."

"Let me get my stuff then." Felix sighed. He really had hoped that he could have seen the sights a bit, but Gaby was in one of those moods again, which made arguing impossible. The act of repacking the few things he had unpacked did not take long. Byte was still working in his Pokédex and so he just pocketed it. If he found anything he would let him now.

With not much ceremony the two young trainers set out to Vermillion City.

* * *

><p>Somewhere a man in an expensive business suit was sitting at his desk and reading reports. He loved reading reports as they gave him information and information was everything. <em>Prices of oranges soon to be raised. <em>The man nodded once and put the report of the appropriate pile. He sorted the reports in order of importance. He had all kind of piles from "May be useful" to "Very Important". The information about the oranges came on the "May be useful" pile. He picked up the next one and read the title. _Mr. Sandburg bought new shoes._ The man frowned he had told his subordinates not to report stuff like this. What was he supposed to do with this? He had a pile for this kind of reports as well: the shredder. The next one was more to his taste. The title was already intriguing._ Boy grows cat-like features. _This report was placed onto the interesting pile. He would read it in detail later, but for now he had more reports to sort.

* * *

><p><em>There we have it. I am still amazed how I can sit down and write this story. I usually have a very short attention span. Anyhow, I liked the idea of the country shoutout so I will continue doing it. This chapter's shoutout goes to all the readers from Malaysia. So, if you are from Malaysia leave a review and represent. Let the others know you are out there. <em>

_I would also like to thank everyone who left a review._

_Nanocarp:__ This is not my first piece of creative writing, but it is my first piece of fanfic. I also have a very clear idea, how a story is supposed to look like. Every time I write something I have that feeling as well. Did I write enough or was it too much? I am still working on it, so your feeling is probably justified. I am still just a wannabe writer ;)_

_IcecreamSyndrome:__ I am forcing myself to take this story step by step. I really want to share the ideas I have with all of you but they have to wait for their turn. _

_DuochanShinigami:__ I am glad you like the story. I actually feel bad sometimes for putting Felix in all kind of sucky situations, but I do it anyway and that makes me feel worse. I am just too empathic sometimes. _

_That is all for now,  
><em>

_benthefirst signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!  
><em>


	12. On The Road Again

Chapter 12 

On The Road Again

„It hurts."

„Felix, I know. You told me about a million times already."

"It really hurts."

"Then eat another Sitrus Berry. Gosh, who knew you would be such a great baby?"

"You try growing thirty teeth at the same time." Felix mumbled as he fetched another berry out of his bag. It didn't help much but the Sitrus Berry did numb the pain a bit. They were already walking for a few hours. It was a clear day and they were moving along quickly. Still Felix was in a foul mood. The teeth he saw on an x-ray not so long ago, started to push their way up and it hurt like hell. Trying to ease the pain, he massaged his gums with his tongue.

"I think I feel them."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous teeth take a lot longer to grow then a few hours. It's just wishful thinking."

"No, I am pretty sure." Gaby finally had enough.

"Alright, let us make a deal. I will take a look in your mouth. If I do not find any sign of a tooth, you will be quite for the rest of the day. No more whining, no more talking. Understood?"

Felix nodded. "And what do I get?"

"A pat on your back, now open your mouth!"

"That is not a fair trade."

"Open it now!"

Felix flinched back. Gaby was scary when she was pissed. As ordered he opened his mouth. Gaby, put aside the incubator and took hold of his head and pulled into a position where she could get a better look. That position was not too comfortable for Felix though.

"Ahh… Gahi, 'ach ouh."

"See, there is not a single … oh…"

"Ee an'hing?"

"Nothing, nothing at all." She released Felix and gave him a dirty look. Then walked up to him and gave him one small pat before picking up her incubator and marching on.

"So you did see something."

Gaby waved dismissively. "Nothing conclusive Mr. Snuffles. I just didn't want you to be a sore loser."

"Hey, do not call me Mr. Snuffles!"

Both young trainers starting bickering with one another, which led into a conversation. The talking helped to distract Felix from the pain and he learned a few things. Apparently Gaby had caught a new Pokémon, trained with it late into the night, challenge Misty in the morning and won. Her new Pokémon was a Bellsprout and she was already found of it. They were just discussion the merits of various Pokémon types when Gaby suddenly slapped her forehead.

"Oh man, now I forgot."

"Forgot what?" Felix asked reluctantly. He did not want to turn around and walk all the way back to Cerulean City.

"I forgot to preach in the PokéCenter, what a lousy High Priestess I am. I think we turn around."

Felix immediately shook his head. "Nu-uh. We are already far away from Cerulean City. There will be another PokéCenter in Vermillion City."

"But, but what if someone who would want to join, doesn't hear my message now?"

"There will many opportunities to get that person later. Do you really want to walk all the way back, for one hypothetical person?"

For a moment Felix thought she would say yes. But luckily for him she just sighed.

"Fine, but I will try and convert the next person I meet and you will help me."

"Sure, as long as we do not have backtrack."

Gaby was about to answer, but instead just stared at him. Tilting her head to the side she remarked.

"You do know you have teeth…?"

"Yeah, I saw them in the x-ray." She gave him an exasperated look and tilted her head to the other side.

"What I meant by that is that they are already there or at least half way."

Felix sent his tongue searching and indeed found teeth. "Huh…"

"You know Felix that is not normal." Gaby started to freak out.

"Oh, and my ears changing was normal? Speaking of which…" Felix threw his Pokédex another glance. Byte was still looking.

"Well, they at least look cute. Your teeth not so much, and why do you keep looking at your Pokédex?"

"Byte is looking for something." Felix put the Pokédex away, glancing up he found Gaby still staring at him. "Could you please not stare? I am not going to eat you."

"You could with those teeth…"

"Enough about my teeth."

"Then close your mouth."

Felix closed his mouth with an audible snap. All the talk about his teeth made acutely aware of how much it still hurt. Getting another Sitrus Berry out of the bag, he continued walking on. Even before they stopped for lunch the pain lessened and Felix had a whole new functioning set of scary looking teeth.

* * *

><p>Lunch was a non-affair. They stopped, eat and continued on. It was becoming routine and Felix felt pretty good about how his journey was going so far. Shortly after their break the met two other trainers. These were actually the first Felix had seen on the road, not counting Gaby. Somehow he expected them to start throwing Pokéballs as soon as their eyes met, but the encounter was nothing like that. Felix and Gaby both chatted with the two trainers. Daniel and Jason were twin brothers from Sinnoh. They have already been on their journey for a long time and Kanto was there fifth region. They even were semi-successful in a couple of leagues. It was interesting to talk to these people who clearly had seen a lot more of the Pokémon world than Felix. When they commented on Felix's appearance, they accepted his shoulder shrugged answer: „Genetic mutation." They apparently had seen weirder stuff in their travel. Everything started to go downhill however as soon as Gaby started talking about her beliefs.<p>

"Listen Gaby, we are truly not interested."

"Yeah, I know your cause is noble and all, but no thanks."

"But, you did not even let me finish." Gaby retorted hurt.

"We know, but we heard this kind of thing a lot during our travels. One gets sick off it after a while." One of the twins answered her kindly.

Fire starting burning in Gaby's eyes and Felix got a sinking feeling that Gaby was about to do something stupid.

"Ok, how about we have a Pokémon battle, if I win, you will have to listen to me."

The twin brothers shared a glance then shrugged in unison. "If you insist. But make it a double battle. You want us both to listen after all."

"Deal, Felix you're up."

Felix did not like the idea of battling two way experienced trainers at all.

"Gaby, I think we are way out of our league here. Maybe we should pass…" he whispered in her ear.

"No way, I will not let it go. You promised to help me after all." Sighing he pulled out his Pokédex. He was at least going to put up a good fight.

"Byte stop searching, I need your help." The screens on the Pokédex turned dark before Byte materialized with a flash. If anything, Felix managed to surprise everyone else.

"Wow, haven't seen that before." Daniel said to his brother.

"Yup, definitely something new. At least this wasn't a total waste of time then. Say dear brother, how about we have some fun?" Jason asked.

"Sure why not, at least the battle will be amusing then." Daniel replied with a grin and pulled out a Pokéball.

"Go Togekiss!"

"Go Snorlax!"

"Snorlax!"

"Togekiss!"

Felix gapped at the two awesome Pokémon that materialized. They were totally out of their league. Even Gaby goggled before finding her resolve again and sending out her Abra. What took Felix aback however is that he did not understand any of the Pokémon. Wondering if he had just imagined everything he quietly prompted Byte to say something.

"_Something."_ Was the dry and monotone response. _Weird, why can I only understand Byte? _Looking back up he noticed that he was garnering looks from all the other trainers. Felix simply waved it off

"Sorry about that. How about we begin?"

"An excellent idea. We will do the first move." Daniel called out. Together with his twin he shouted.

"Metronome!"

Both Togekiss and Snorlax threw their arms up in the air and began swinging them. Felix of course new what the move does. He had seen it on TV several times and read about it. He had always scoffed at the trainers who did not take advantage of the situation and attacked while the move was still building up, but now he found himself unable to do anything but watch the memorizing arms of the Pokémon swing left and right.

"_Calculating possible outcome…"_ _At least Byte was doing something_. Glancing to Gaby, he saw that she was staring at the moving arms as well. Her Abra looked like it was sleeping or meditating. Felix could never tell which. The Abra however was the first to move. It suddenly sprung to its feet and inched away from the opposing Pokémon. All of the trainers looked at it in interest.

"Abra, what is wrong?" Gaby asked kneeling down. Instead of answering Abra turned around, jumped at her and teleported away. There was a second of shocked silence.

"That's no fun, first she challenges us, and then she runs away." Daniel moaned.

"Well, I think we won by default then." Jason said "Or do you want to give it a shot?"

Before Felix could answer Byte chimed up. _"Calculation complete."_ Felix looked down at his Pokémon in hope of hearing the results. His heart sank when he saw Byte's eyes widen. Whatever was coming, it couldn't be good. _"Initiating teleport protocol."_

"What, why?" Felix asked. Byte however, did not answer and Felix was distracted because several things happened. Both Snorlax and Togekiss raised their glowing hands up. Instead of shooting some sort of attack, they both started to glow white. Upon seeing the white glow, both Daniel and Jason each called out another Pokémon. Felix did not see any more because he was teleported away by Byte.

* * *

><p>Being teleported was a totally disorienting experience for Felix. Not even within a blink of an eye everything around him changed, throwing off his sense of direction. Before he could reorient himself a huge explosion erupted behind him. The force of which threw him to the ground. Dazedly he lay on the ground for several minutes waiting for his sense of direction to return. Finally he managed to get onto his feet. Immediately he called out to Byte. His voice sounded funny in the silence after the explosion. Receiving no answer he called out again. A response finally came as a tap to the back of his leg. Felix mind was already in overdrive. He imagined all kind injuries that Byte could have sustained that made him unable to call out for help. Turning around however, he found a perfectly healthy Porygon2 looking at him worriedly. They starred at each other for several minutes. Byte waiting for something and Felix waiting for some kind of vocal response from Byte. Something trickled down both sides of Felix's neck. Lifting a hand to his head, it came away bloodied again. Grimacing he gently used his hands to feel for the injuries, as Byte apparently wasn't talking to him. Felix found, to his horror, that he was bleeding from his ears. His funny sounding voice, the silent world around him and especially Byte's silence suddenly made a lot more sense.<p>

"Byte, I think I lost my hearing." Felix yelled. panic slowly started to build in his chest. He could feel his tail trying to slash back and forward and all Byte could do was nod. Of course, becoming aware of his injury made him feel they pain. Not wanting to give in to the oncoming panic attack, Felix took his backpack to grab a Sitrus Berry. He opened it to find several of all of his Full Restores and several of his Full Heals had burst. It bothered him that he lost the high quality medicine, but at the same time, it had been a gift. He played with the thought to just grab a drenched piece of clothing and let the medicine drip into his ear, but dismissed it because he had no idea how he would react to it. So he went for the proven therapy and Sitrus Berry. Pulling it out, he stuffed it into his mouth in order to close up his bag probably. Taking a bite, he looked around properly for the first time. He was in some sort of clearing somewhere in the woods. Hopefully Byte knew where they had gone, because he did not. It was also the first time Felix noticed that a certain pink girl was missing. Turning to Byte he shouted

"Do you know where Gaby is?"

Byte flinched at this loud voice. But shook his head.

"You don't know?" This time he whispered the question, not wanting to hurt Byte's hearing, but at the same time had to wonder if Byte could hear him at all. It sucked not being able to hear his own voice properly. Byte just shook his head.

"Do you at least know where we are?" Byte shook his head again. Felix sighed and tried to stay focused. He was lost, deaf, had lost his medical supplies, all of his gear was wet and Gaby was nowhere in sight. Looking down at the stem of the Sitrus Berry, he tried to remember when he had eaten it. He couldn't even remember tasting it. Sighing he threw the stem into the woods and watched it disappear. Standing still for a moment he tried to decide what do next. A rustling where he had thrown the stem caught his attention. A Granbull stepped into the clearing, the stem of the lying squarely on his face. Felix was frozen in fear, within a blink of an eye Byte was in front of him. The Granbull lowered his head and readied itself. Felix then did something that surprised everyone, including himself. He hissed at Granbull showing his new teeth. Byte turned around in shock. The Granbull actually decided to back off and let the matter go. Felix continued to hiss until he was unable to see Granbull anymore. When the threat was finally gone, he noticed his whole body was tense. He was standing in a fighting stance and his hands were held as if he had claws. He stayed in that position until he fully realized the implications of his action. Slowly he relaxed. Throwing Byte a questioning glance he got a "yes-that-just-happened" look as a response. Maybe it wasn't a bad time for a panic attack after all.

* * *

><p><em>Yes! Another chapter Completed! I am getting tired, so I will keep this short. I am now a proud member of the Wannabe Writers Group. If you want to see me rambling or others talk about writing in general you can find a link in my profile.<em>

_Enough of that, it is time to get to the important part. I want to thank everyone for reviewing. Also this chapter's shoutout goes to the other side of the world, to be more exact: Australia. So, if you are from Australia, leave a review and say hi. _

_Zerones:__ I had the exact same problem. At least I am not the only one._

_Pichufan:__ I think everyone is looking forward to that scene. Now I am under all this performance pressure._

_IcecreamSyndrome: You are totally right. I messed up on that. I have it all wrong in my head. Porygon and it's evolutions are still just Porygon to me. Just as XP, Vista and 7 is all Windows, if that makes any sense. Thank you for pointing that out.  
><em>

_That is all for now,_

_benthefirst signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	13. When Life Gives You Berries

Chapter 13 

When life gives you berries...

Seeing how Felix had several problems to deal with at the moment, he chose to tackle the worst: his hissing at the wild Pokémon. Ruptured ear drums and being lost in a forest do not seem too bad while you are slowly losing your humanity. Having had already enough of the day he slumped to the ground and let his head hang. His mind was racing with possibilities. Was he going to turn into some feral Pokémon? Pokémon seemed to always be intelligent creatures but how much of that is actually true. Do humans only perceive Pokémon as intelligent? Glancing up he saw Byte sitting in front. The sight of him made him smile at his own stupidity. Pokémon were intelligent. Byte was the perfect example for it. Hell, he already had a lengthy conversation with him, but were all Pokémon like him. Byte was special, after all. Felix had half in mind to call out Sara to check, but the silent world around him reminded him that he was still deaf.

While contemplating his changing life he pulled out his tail. It was slowly getting to long for his pants seeing how it now almost reached his ankles. He sighed in dismay. How should he hide it once it grew too long? Propping his head on his hand he just sat there. Not thinking, just being. The forced silence was bliss at that moment as it brought peace to Felix. A tap on his leg brought Felix back and he saw a concerned looking Byte. Felix smiled and gave him a quick pat.

"I'll be ok." he said. Byte only nodding in response. Grabbing another Sitrus Berry, he looked at the sun and tried to determine were south was. Considering the next Gym they wanted to visit was in Vermillion City, south was his best option. He would either find Saffron City or at least a Route that leads to it and Gaby would probably be waiting for him there. Giving the sun another calculating look, he chose a direction and started to walk. He hadn't gotten far as suddenly a green Pokémon flitted out of a nearby bush and stopped right in front of him. It had a teardrop shaped head with two small antenna sticking out of it. Felix could also see two small wings on its back, but it didn't seem to need them in order to fly.

The Pokémon seem excited and was talking pretty fast if the movement of its mouth was any indicator and before Felix could even comprehend what was happening, it gave him a small wave and disappeared in the woods again. Looking down at Byte, he asked him.

"What in the world? I hope whatever I just missed wasn't important, like a warning or something along that line?"

Byte shook his head.

"But you did understand what it was saying?"

Byte nodded

"Well, at least you can tell me later, by the way, do you know which Pokémon it was?"

Again Byte nodded.

"At least something to look forward to."

* * *

><p>The trip through the forest was at the same time boring and totally fascinating. It was boring because absolute nothing happened. He passed tree after tree after tree. Not even a Pokémon showed itself. On top of that, he ate the rest of Sitrus Berries. On the other hand his hearing returned while he was walking. Either the Sitrus Berries were started to show their medical properties or he somehow developed some crazy healing ability. He really hoped it was the berries. It started with really low tones like the thump of something heavy falling down. Shortly after a quite background noise set in which gradually got louder. Around dusk his hearing returned to the point where he could tell that Byte was saying something but couldn't understand what. Felix spirits were considerably raised at the prospect of hearing things. To brighten his spirits even more he entered a grove full of different berry trees. All of the different smells from the Berries mixed in the air to create an intoxicating aroma.<p>

"This is awesome." He said more to himself than anyone. "It's like… it's like … someone" With a large yawn Felix slumped to the floor. Byte laying peacefully beside him. Unfortunate for Felix he did not see the small grass Pokémon who was dancing in the setting sun. It started to release Sleeping Powder once the boy and his Pokémon entered and it now stood over them tilting its head and putting a hand to her chin to think.

"Bell?"

It quickly came to a conclusion as it happily hopped away doing a small spin with every hop. After a short while it came back, this time accompanied by an old man. The man was grizzled and apparently needed a walking stick to move at all.

"Well, well, well, Bellossom, what do we have here?"

* * *

><p>Felix woke up with his eyes still closed. He was lying on a wooden floor. There was also a pillow under his head and a blanket on top of him. It wasn't the best sleeping arrangement but it was somehow at the same time homey. Felix's ears twitched as he realized that he could clearly hear again. Enjoying his healed sense, he kept his eyes closed and tried to hear as many things as possible.<p>

There was another person in the room. His breath was clearly audible. Every so often Felix could hear the rustling of a turning page. There was also, what Felix assumed to be, a Pokémon in the room. It's quite breaths were barely audible but it moved a couple of times while he was listening. Every time it moved one could hear the rustling and a quite ringing. Felix finally decided to open his eyes and immediately cried out in shock. Byte had been levitating over Felix and was holding his face directly in front of his.

"_Trainer has healed from all afflictions!"_

"He's been waiting like that since he woke up."

Looking for the source of the voice he found the human he heard earlier. It was an old man. The few pieces of hair he had left on his scalp were snow white. Age had bowed him but at the same time he had the air of wisdom around him. Putting away the book he grabbed his cane to stand up.

"You had a nice little nap. You want some food?"

Felix gave Byte a quick pat and moved him from his face. "Um… sure, why not?"

The old man seemed to jump a bit in his happiness. "That is great. It was so long since I had a chance to talk with a fellow human being. I have been living out here far too long."

The old man shuffled out of the room and Felix got up off the floor to followed him. He seemed to be in a small cottage. There were two rooms. He apparently just left the sleeping room and entered the combined living room and kitchen. The old man pulled out a bowl and started filling it with various berries. Signaling Felix to take a seat at the table he put the bowl on it and pulled up a chair himself. Felix's eyes grew wide and he hastily picked a Lum Berry

"So…" Felix said between bites. "What are you doing way out here."

The chest of the old man puffed out as he proudly explained.

"I am the Berry Master of Kanto. But you can call me Bob. I searched the whole region for the perfect place to make the perfect berry grove and found it here. "

_Kanto has a Berry Master? _Was the first thought that went through Felix's head. At the moment, there was no way that he would doubt that claim. The Lum Berry was delicious. He had a question however.

"How did I end up here? Last thing I remember is entering the grove."

Bob shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Well, sorry about that. Bellossom was kind of surprised by your sudden appearance and reacted instinctively."

Felix twitched at the word instinctively and he could also feel his tail twitch behind him. _Oh damn, I forgot. Hopefully he hasn't noticed yet. _He slid the chair he was sitting on around, so he would sit directly opposite from the old berry master and hopefully hide his tail behind his back.

"Not a problem." Felix replied with a smile.

"There is one thing I would like to know though." _Oh no, he noticed. _"What is that Pokémon you have there." Bob glanced down to Byte. "It looks like someone used sandpaper on a Porygon."

Felix laughed partially because he was relieved and partially because he found the comparison funny.

"Sort of true, Byte evolved into a Porygon2."

"I never knew that they evolved. I remember back in the day when they first announced it. There was a big uproar about them."

Felix nodded in agreement "I met some people who still find it questionable."

"Well, a Pokémon is a Pokémon if you ask me. And talking about which, do you treat your Pokémon with the respect they deserve?" The old man suddenly asked seriously.

Taken aback by the sudden harshness Felix quickly answered: "Yes, of course I do."

Looking down to Byte he said "Beep, Beep, Booperty. Beep."

"_Input error: Unrecognizable language. Assuming that human is requesting confirmation. The statement Felix made is true."_

"Yup, your buddy agrees with you."

"Wait, you can talk to Pokémon?" Felix didn't quite want to believe it.

"Of course I can. Every Pokémon has their own dialect. One just has to figure out which one it is. Watch and learn." Turning back to Byte he said. "Bloop. Bloop. Bleep-Bloop."

"_Prolonged isolation can cause severe mental health issues."_

"It likes cucumbers."

"Pardon me?" Felix was trying to find some kind on sense in that statement

"Your Pokémon likes cucumbers, don't ask me why."

"He."

"Pardon me?" This time the old man looked confused.

"My Pokémon, Byte is a male."

"Well, in that case." Bob got up and bowed as low as his body let him. "Boop, Beep, Boop."

"_Recommend immediate departure.__" _Byte backed away from the man and hid behind Felix's chair.

"Ah… how cute. He's a shy one." Bob said clasping his hands together. Walking over to a small cupboard he pulled out a bottle with two small glasses. "Berry Spirit, made it myself out in the shed. You want a shot?"

"Um… no." Felix said now slowly warming up to Byte's request.

"Ah well, your loss." The old man sat back down. He opened the bottle and took a swig directly out of it. He filled up both shot glasses emptying one immediately, before refilling again.

"Why the tail?" he finally said in a cheery conversation voice.

The question stung Felix. _Crap, he noticed after all. _In spite of himself his tail started lashing back and forward becoming clearly visible to Bob. Seeing Felix react badly to the question he rephrased it.

"What I mean is why you did have a tail surgically attached. There must be some kind of motivations behind it. You don't have to go into details. I was just interested in generals. The color choice is also a bit weird. I mean pink. Not really appropriate for your gender, is it? Unless you are gay, then it would be totally appropriate. I am not saying that it is bad. I am a tolerate guy. My best friend is president of the Gay Association of Kanto. Just saying having a pink tail surgically attached may indicate homosexual tendencies."

Felix started to relax. Why not talk about it? Who could Bob ever talk to, apart from his Bellossom? Even if he ever met another human being, who would believe him?

"It just started growing."

"You are kidding me. One morning you woke up and had a tail grow out of your butt?"

Felix nodded in conformation.

"By Arceus golden wheel, that would have freaked me out. It is amazing that you didn't go all kuku-bananas." Bob took another berry shot. "You still haven't told me why it is pink."

"That is just how it grew. I never chose it."

The crazy Berry Master started to laugh. It took at least a couple minutes for him to calm down. Byte kept repeating his recommendation to Felix, but Felix decided that they could stay a while. Bob was surely crazy but not dangerous. Probably he was just lonely.

Finally Bob caught his breath and finished off the last berry shot. Still chuckling he pointed a shaking finger to the roof and said: "Someone up there hates you."

This brought a small smile to Felix's face. "Probably."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Bob suddenly serious again.

"Do, what could I do? This is clearly out of my control."

"Bull. Ever heard of the saying "When life gives you berries"?"

Felix sighed. "Of course, when life gives you berries, make jam."

"Who told you that crap?"

"What? Why?" Felix asked confused.

"When life gives you berries, don't just take the berries and make the best out of it. Make life take the berries back. Get mad! Tell life I don't want your damn berries! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give you berries! Ask life if it knows who it's dealing with. You are the guy who will burn life's house down. With the berries! Study and invent combustible berries and throw them at life's house."

During his small speech the old man got to his feet and pounded his hand on the table to emphasize his points. Felix on the other hand was trying really hard not to laugh. He wasn't sure if the Berry Master was just always crazy or if this was the liquor talking. But he did manage to make Felix think.

"So…" Bob said finally calming down. He grabbed the booze bottle again and bypassing any etiquette involving glasses to a good long pull from the bottle. "what are you going to do now?"

"Continue looking for my traveling companion. We got separated."

"Friendship. Good, good. That is important. But what I actually wanted to know is what are you going to do about yourself. If I had to take a wild guess is that you are hiding that tail of yours. It will grow stronger and stronger and one day it will come out of hiding and destroy you!"

"_The intoxicated human has a valid point."_

"So what do you suggest that I just run around with my tail out?"

The Berry Master nodded violently.

"If the world doesn't care what you think, why should you care about what the world thinks?"

Using his cane he hooked Felix's bag with surprising dexterity and pulled it towards him. Grabbing it, he threw it at Felix.

"Here, Bellossom and I took the liberty to clean up your stuff. Also, I had Bellossom make a couple adjustments to your clothes. That must be uncomfortable having your tail like that."

With a sense of dread he opened up his rucksack and pulled out an extra pair of pants. They looked normal except from the small hole it now had on its backside. Pulling out a pair of boxers he found a similar hole there as well. Bob took Felix's shocked silence as inability to form his thanks into words.

"You don't have to thank me. Thank Bellossom tomorrow. But it was my idea." He added proudly. "Please take as many Berries as you can carry when you leave. I have enough. Right now, I think I may have a small nap, I am getting tired." With that, he laid his head on the table, closed his eyes and began to snore.

It took Felix a while to transport the drunken old man back to his bed. After he was carefully tucked in, Felix got his cleaned sleeping bag and got himself ready for bed. The whole in his pajamas was wide enough for his tail. Although he hated himself for admitting it, it was infinitely more comfortable then stuffing the tail down a pant leg. It was also clear to Felix that he had now been spoiled and never could go back again.

Felix got up at dawn. Bob was still snoring away in his bed muttering something about "good gay kids." The only other beings awake were Bellossom dancing though the grove to greet the suns first rays and Byte. Within fifteen minutes Felix had packed everything, including a huge amount of berries.

"So, Bellossom, do you happen to know where the closest city or route is?" He asked as the Pokémon danced by him. Bellossom stopped thought a moment before she exclaimed and jumped up to perform a graceful Pirouette. When she landed both hands pointed in one direction.

"Thanks, a lot. Maybe if we get time will come and visit again."

Bellossom exclaimed loudly and waved them good-bye as Byte and Felix left the grove.

* * *

><p>While moving through the trees Felix finally had a chance to ask Byte a question.<p>

"So what did that green bug-looking like Pokémon wanted to tell me yesterday."

"_Gathering needed information. The Pokémon in question was identified as Celebi, the Time Travel Pokémon according to various databases. It wanted to meet you but had to do it in secret because it was against the rules. The only other remark it made was that it's time was now up and that it would meet us again in the future."_

"You are kidding me, are you?"

"_Negative."_

"That makes no sense, what so ever."

Byte actually sighed at that. _"Affirmative."_

* * *

><p>It didn't take long for the two of them to reach the route. Felix hid in a bush and turned to Byte.<p>

"Do you think I should go out like this. I still have a pair of pants without a hole." he asked his trusted companion with at small wave at his tail.

_"Affirmative. It would be the best for the physical and mental well-being for trainer."_

Felix hugged himself. "What will the other's say, especially Gaby?"

_"The other humans are subject to the obligations you call law. The reaction of pink trainer is not_ _predictable."_

Felix sighed and pulled out another Pokéball. With a flash Sara materialized.

_"Yeah, finally out of the Pokéball again. It had been a while."_

"Hey Sara, I think you don't know yet. I can understand you now."

_"Hey Felix, what you mean? You could understand me perfectly since the day we met. Woah, what happened to your teeth?"_

"Never mind that now. Do you think I should let other humans see my tail?"

Without hesitating Sara answered. _"Of course."_

"Why?" Felix wanted to know.

_"Because it is such a nice tail. You should show it off."_

Sighing to himself he murmured: "Well, I can at least try it. What is the worse that could happen. I get looked at funny and maybe get asked a question. I could always start hiding it afterwards again." He was trying to convince himself. Not wanting his tail cramped again, he gathered all the courage he had and with a big step, moved onto the route.

He had expected people to scream. He even expected people with cameras to surround him, only to be caught by the Rangers to be released into the wild. What they had not expected however was to see a small guardhouse with a sign proclaiming: "Welcome to Lavender Town"

* * *

><p><em>And with this chapter we officially move into the 40k+ word bracket. Make your Warhammer jokes while you can. I know this chapter took longer than usual to post. Life threw some curve balls and you can pick your generic sad story to insert here. I won't bore you with it. The "When life gives you berries" Speech is based on the quote from Cave Johnson "When life gives you lemons." Credit where it is due. You also may have noticed that PokéSpeech was only cursive in this chapter. The Doc Manager only saved half of the underlined words. I will try and fix it.<br>_

_I would like to thank everyone who left a review or added this story to their fav/story alert list. You are all awesome!_

_That is it for now. _

_benthefirst, signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	14. Exercise

Chapter 14

Exercise

"Did you see that?"

"Mommy, what is that?"

"Quick dude, take a picture."

"What the…?

"That's pretty cool."

"Did he have a tail?"

The comments followed him through town all the way to the Pokémon Center. Felix tried to ignore them the best to the best of his abilities and keep his head held up high. Yet it still stung. Although he managed to keep his face straight, his tail betrayed his feelings. Entering the PokéCenter was even worse. Everyone fell silent and turned around to stare at Felix as he walked up to Nurse Joy.

"Hello, how may I help you today.", the nurse said in her usual cheery manner. She tried hard not to stare at Felix, but he could see her eyes flick to his tail and his ears.

"Could you check up on my Pokémon, please? I would also like to have a room."

Nurse Joy smiled her trademark smile as she accepted Felix's Pokéballs and gave him a room key in exchange.

"By the way, is your name Felix by any chance?" the nurse asked him out of the blue.

"Um… yes. Why, is something wrong?" Felix asked wearily.

Nurse Joy gave him a huge smile. "No, don't worry nothing is wrong at all. You have been paged by the Saffron City PokéCenter. Someone there wants to talk to you."

"Alright, thank you."

"Anytime." The nurse said with another of her smiles.

* * *

><p>The number for the Saffron City PokéCenter was quickly found and punched in. A Nurse Joy, identical to the one he had just talked to, popped up on the screen.<p>

"Saffron City PokéCenter, how may I help you today?"

"Hello, my name is Felix. I heard you were paging me."

"Ah yes, a young girl named Gaby is looking for you. Let me get her." The nurse walked off screen. It took several minutes until a rather excited Gaby took her place.

"Oh my Mew, Felix. Where are you? I thought you were dead. That explosion was huge. But I after I teleported back and asked Daniel and Jason, who we ,by the way, beat considering their Pokémon were unable to battle after blowing themselves up, said that you teleported away as well. Why didn't you come back? Was Byte hurt? Were you hurt in that matter? Why aren't you answering me?"

"If you would take a breath once in a while, I could answer some of your questions." Felix laughed. It was good to know Gaby was alright. And so, he started to recount his adventure. He conveniently left out any parts about his tail.

"So, you are in Lavender Town now?"

"Yeah, I am at the PokéCenter."

"Wow, you really got off course then. Be that as it may. As soon as Abra rests up I'll be there. Don't move."

"Well, there may be one thing I may need to tell you…" Felix begun.

"Tell me later, I need to go now." And Gaby hung up. Felix looked at the screen in despair before sighing. _Oh well, I can tell her later._

Felix was not quite sure how to spend his time until Gaby showed up. He would have challenged the Gym, but there was no Gym in the town. He also disliked the idea of sightseeing as he didn't want to attract more muttering. Not wanting to be cooped up in a room all day, he decided to move to the computers. Sitting in front of a monitor allowed him to ignore the stares he was getting. He browsed randomly. One interesting thing he found was that a doctor in Viridian City was arrested for selling patient information to an unknown source. Felix wondered for a minute whether if it was his doctor, but decided that he would rather not know. Somehow ending up at his emails he found he had two. One from Gaby asking where he was and one from his dad, asking him again to call him. Bowing to the inevitable he stood up to go back to the phones. A lot of heads which were looking at him turned away at his sudden movement. A few continued to stare shamelessly. Getting irritated again his tail start to sway causing the starring heads to follow its movement.

Pushing the stares out of his mind he tried to decide on to how to explain his physical change to his dad. He was pretty sure that he wasn't going to take it well. With a feeling of dread he dialed the phone number.

"_Hello…"_

"Hello Dad…"

"… _you have reached the Ferell residence. Unfortunately we are unable to answer the phone at the moment. Please leave a message and your contact information after the beep… BEEEP!" _

Felix exhaled in relief. Of course his dad wouldn't be at home.

"Hey Dad, just checking in. Unfortunately I missed you, so I will try later again." Hanging up, he heard Nurse Joy call out his name and he went to collect his Pokémon.

* * *

><p>Felix soon sat on a bench behind the PokèCenter. The Center's battlefield was located here but it rarely got any use, if its pristine look is any indicator. Felix liked it for that reason. Little use equaled an equally low amount of people and stares. So he just sat on a bench, closed his eyes and let the sun hit his body. His tail was wrapped around him giving him the feeling that someone was holding him. His moment of bliss and quite was interrupted when a shadow blocked the sun. Opening them he saw a boy around his age stand in front of him.<p>

"Excuse me, do you mind me asking you a question?"

Felix had expected this so he answered in a dull tone. "Yes, that tail is real."

The other boy flinched. "I wasn't going to ask about that, but it is pretty rad, by the way."

"Then what is it?" Felix asked, leaning forward.

"Well, I heard of this different way to battle and I wanted to try it out for a long time, but I cannot find it someone who wants to join."

"What you mean with different?" Felix asked, warming up to the conversation.

The boy began talking quickly. "Well it is called Roulette. Both trainers agree on type of battle. The twist is that you cannot choose which Pokémon you use, the opposing trainer choses them randomly."

"So you choose which Pokéball I throw." Felix asked for confirmation.

"That's pretty much it. I see you have three Pokéballs on your belt, so let's have a best of three battle. "

"I am not sure. One of my Pokémon isn't really battle ready."

"Oh, come on. You never know until you try." The boy almost begged.

So Felix agreed. The probability of him being blown to pieces this time was rather low.

The two trainers faced each other on the field.

"Before we start, what's your name?" The boy shouted across the field.

"Felix, you?"

"Leonardo, but everyone calls me Leo."

"Alright Leo, which one?" Felix asked holding out his three Pokéballs.

"Take the Hyperball and what about mine?" Leo responded.

"The middle one." To himself he murmured, "Of course he would chose that one."

Throwing the Hyperball Slowpoke materialized on the field. On the other side a bug Pokémon appeared. Quickly Felix pulled out his Pokédex and saw that Leo was mirroring him.

_Ledian, the Five Star Pokémon_

_It is said that in lands with clean air, where the stars fill the sky, there live Ledian in countless numbers. There is a good reason for this - the Pokémon uses the light of the stars as its energy. In the daytime when it gets warm, it curls up inside a big leaf and drifts off into a deep slumber._

"Alright then, Slowpoke, use Confusion!" Felix called out. Slowpoke just stood there.

Leo looked at Slowpoke, before raising his eyes to Felix. "Is this the Pokémon that isn't quite ready yet?"

Felix just nodded.

"Sorry about this then. Bugsy, use Comet Punch." The Ledian shot forward and started pummeling Slowpoke with a flurry of blows. Slowpoke however didn't seem to notice the blows. The skin didn't even seem to move. After it finished its attack the Ledian flew back in front of her trainer.

"That didn't seem to do much." Leo commented dryly. "Well, if you first don't succeed. Bugsy, use Acrobatics." The Ledian disappeared in a blur of turns, twists and punches. Once it was done, it returned to a ready stance. Slowpoke seemed once again unharmed.

"Slowpoke, please do anything. Just saying something would be fine." Felix tried to plead with his Pokémon.

"Bugsy, use Comet Punch until the Slowpoke finally notices."

Ledian descended onto Slowpoke once again. Felix waited a couple of seconds hoping that Slowpoke would react in anyway, but he didn't. So wanting to end the battle he pulled out Slowpokes Hyperball. Slowpoke cried out in that very instance. A blue light surrounded both Slowpoke and the Ledian which was now frozen in midair. With a loud cry the Ledian was catapulted off the field and into a nearby alley. They heard a loud crash as she apparently hit something. Both Leo and Felix stood there heartbeat in shock before running after the poor bug Pokémon.

"Bugsy, where are you? Bugsy?" Leo shouted into the alley. The answer was barely audible and a little fist was raised from underneath a pile of trash cans and their contents. Felix helped Leo clear the debris. Luckily the Ledian didn't seem badly injured. Leo thanked her for her effort, before recalling her.

"I am sorry about that Leo that was rather… unexpected."

"Yeah, I don't blame you. I never would have seen that coming as well."

The two young trainers returned to the battle field to find Slowpoke passed out. The bruises of the beating he had just endured clearly visible. Sighing, Felix also recalled his Pokémon.

"So do you want to call it a tie?" Felix asked.

"Na, you clearly knocked out Bugsy first. It's your round." Leo conceded. "How about we keep on battling? Which ball do you want?"

"I'll take the left one."

"Alright, left sounds good for me as well."

The Trainers reassumed their positions and threw their respective Pokéballs. Sara appeared before Felix and on the other side a Pokémon he did not recognize. Again both trainers consulted their Pokédex before battling.

_Absol, the Disaster Pokémon_

_Every time Absol appears before people, it is followed by a disaster such as an earthquake or a tidal wave. As a result, it came to be known as the disaster Pokémon. It lives in a harsh, rugged mountain environment. This Pokémon very rarely ventures down from the mountains. Its life span is over a hundred years._

_"Yeah! Battling time!"_ Sara cheered on the field.

Felix couldn't help but smile. "It has been a while. Let's make it a good one."

"Soly, let's do this!" Leo asked his Pokémon from the other side of the field.

Both Pokémon stared, seizing each other up. Felix finally decided to take the first move.

"Start with a Tackle."

Sara lowered her head and started charging towards the Absol.

"Sucker Punch"

Absol waited until Sara was about to hit him, he then took a step aside at the last moment tripping Sara with a single claw. While Sara exclaimed in surprise, Absol took a vicious swipe at her with his horn, pounding her into the ground.

Wincing at the hit Sara just had to take, Felix decided to change strategies.

"Sara, hit him with a Leech Seed while he's close."

"Quick, use Taunt."

Sara reacted surprisingly quickly to Felix's order. But not fast enough. Absol already started quietly talking to her. Sara halted in her attack preparations to listen. Felix was curious what Absol was say to Sara, at the same time he was glad he couldn't hear him.

"What did you just call me?_"_ Sara suddenly shouted at the Absol and before he could react she tackled him. Sara gave Absol no time to recover from the blow before she hit him again.

"At least try for an Absorb" Felix called out.

Apparently Sara had heard him as she immediately fired a red beam at Absol. Still dazed from the double tackle he couldn't dodge in time. The beam send Absol flying.

_"How do you like me now? How is that smart mouth of yours working out for you?" _Sara yelled with a satisfied smirk at the downed Absol.

"Soly, are you alright?" Leo asked his Pokémon.

With a little struggle Absol managed to get on his feet again.

"Yeah, I knew you wouldn't let me down. Now it's our turn to shine. Use Slash."

Darting forward the Absol used its horn to slash the still smirking Pokémon. The smirk never leaving Sara's face she slumped forward.

"Nice round Felix, but this time it looks like I won." Leo called out. "I kind of feel sorry for your Shroomish, it never had a chance against my starter."

Felix looked sadly at Sara, she had put up such a nice fight. He was going to recall her, but stopped when he saw her moving. Leo saw it as well and he focused on the battlefield once more.

"_No…",_ Sara said struggling to her feet._ "I will not lose to the likes of you." _

A brilliant white light engulfed Sara blinding both Leo and Felix. Through the light Felix could see Sara's outline grow. As suddenly as the light came it disappeared again, revealing a Breloom.

_"I will destroy you!"_Sara shouted at the Absol, as she now reeled one of her claws back.

"Sucker Punch" Leo ordered calmly.

Once again Absol darted forward. This time the horn hit Sara in her stomach effectively robbing her of any breath she had. A couple of heart beats both Pokémon stood absolutely still before Sara keeled over. This time she did not get up.

Felix was now even more depressed. Sara had put in all that effort, even evolved and still didn't manage to win. Sighing, he recalled her and held up his last Pokéball.

"Are you ready?"

Leo nodded holding up a Pokéball of his own. "Sure I am. Don't get too worked up over the last battle. You win some, you lose some."

Nodding once he threw the Pokéball. "Go, Byte!"

Leo mimicked his move. "Go, Bob!"

Byte materialized at the same time a Golbat appeared on the field. Byte immediately ran through his pre-battle mantra.

_"Initiating battle protocol. Analyzing opponent for possible weakness."_

Felix on the other hand was taken aback by the Golbat's nickname. "Why Bob?" he asked no one in particular. Leo gave him a funny look. "Why, not? Is something wrong with the name Bob?"

"No, I just didn't expect it…"

Leo shrugged at this. "How about we get this show on the road? Bob use Supersonic!"

A high pitched sound echoed over the battlefield. Felix clamped his hands over his ears in hopes to block out the sound with little success. Looking up he saw that Byte wasn't fairing so well either.

"Byte, try to block it out!" he shouted hoping that Byte would hear him.

_"Changing auditory filters",_ and with that Byte was fine. Golbat soon stopped its attack noticing that it had no affect what so ever on his opponent.

"That's a pretty sweet move you have there. Never battled a Porygon before. This could be rather interesting." Leo complimented Felix. "By the way, are you alright? You seemed quite affected by the Supersonic."

"How one could be not affected by that horrible noise." Felix shot back, removing his hands from his ears.

"I don't find it too bad." Leo answered with a shrug.

Felix gapped at him. He was going to say something but shook his head. "Let's continue. Byte use Psybeam."

A colorful beam shoot out of Byte's beak hitting the Golbat in he's right wing. Not being able to stay airborne anymore it landed and held the injured wing close.

"Use Confuse Ray!" Leo shouted.

A purple ball formed in Golbat's mouth, which shot directly at Byte, leaving him no chance to dodge. Byte began moving in circles beeping and booping non sense Felix was unable to decipher.

"Byte, snap out of it!" Felix called out to his starter to no prevail.

"Heal up, Bob. Leech Life." Leo ordered.

With Byte being confused Golbat could simply walk up and bite him. As a result of being bitten Byte began shooting a colorful at random and was even able to graze Golbat's other wing. It did absolutely nothing what led Felix to believe that it was a Signal Beam.

"Byte, you really need to get a hold of yourself." Felix pleaded. Yet still Byte was moving and saying random things while Golbat was slowly draining away his life.

In an act of desperation Felix decided to try something. "Byte, reboot!"

Bytes froze for a second and then to the surprise of everyone seem to explode into very small pieces. Golbat slowly went back to his trainer, confused at what was happening. In front of Felix Byte seem to slowly materialize from bottom upward. As soon as his body was rebuilt he beeped a couple of times before announcing.

_"Reboot complete. Resuming battle protocol. Structural recovery complete."_

"Wow… I didn't know you could use that. Quick it him with your Psybeam."

The colorful psychic attack once again shot out of Byte's beak. This time it hit the Golbat right in the mouth. Not standing a single chance Golbat fell over.

"That was really some move you pulled off. " Leo said, still in awe of what had just transpired. "You can tell me about it later. Right now I need to find Nurse Joy. Good battle."

Leo recalled his Golbat and rushed into the PokéCenter and giving Felix a last wave.

"Good battle." Felix said quietly to the now empty battlefield. Finding the idea of bringing his injured Pokémon to Nurse Joy appealing he made to recall Byte only to find him right in front of him. Byte had a serious look on his face Felix had never seen before. Sitting down in the dust he asked his trusted starter:" What's wrong?"

_"I have a request to make."_ Byte said in a serious tone.

"What is it?" Felix asked, worried.

_"Please do never ask me to reboot again. It was the worst experience I ever had, it… it…" _Byte began tearing up and Felix reached out and pulled him into an embrace.

"Shhh… it's ok… it's ok…I am sorry I order you to do that. I didn't know. I promise I will never ask you do it again." The Trainer held the Pokémon in his arms trying to comfort him. Felix was saying soothing words and rocking Byte slightly. After a while it seemed that he had calmed down again, so Felix decided to cheer him up a bit. "It seems you also learned a new move."

Byte broke away in order to look at Felix.

_"Over the course of our travels enough data has been collected to program various new executable. The newest ones being an high energy attack and structural recovery." _

"Wait, what do you mean by structural recovery?" Felix was relieved that Byte was talking all technical again.

_"Structural recovery means the rebuilding of damaged crystalline structures in order to prolonged endurance."_

"So, what's that in my language… is it Recover?"

_"Sturctural recovery executable saved under Recover."_

"And while you were confused you shot a Signal Beam."

_"New high energy attack saved under Signal Beam." _

"Alright then, let's get inside. Your comrades do need the magical attention of Nurse Joy."

* * *

><p>The duo walked back into the PokéCenter in search for Nurse Joy. A "Mister Snuffles!" , was Felix's only warning before he was glomped by a pink blur.<p>

"Thank Mew you are alright. I was worried about you."

Felix hugged back "Hey Gaby, nice to know you're alright as well."

"Um… Felix… why is there a tail coming out of your butt?"

Felix's heart skipped a beat. "Well… about that…"

* * *

><p>Dr. Martin was examining various armature pictures and even a tabloid article. <em>This boy was getting more interesting by the day. <em>Pushing his glassed up his nose, he pressed a button on his intercom.

"Ms. Hawkins, please inform our staff that there is a new person of interest. Folder number 004676"

"Right away, Dr. Martin." Came the immediately response.

Nodding once he picked up the tabloid and began to read the horrible written article.

* * *

><p><em>It took a while but it is done. I must admit writing battles is not my strong point at all. Be that as it may, the show must go on. I am aware that you all probably hate me because of the ending, please do not kill me. I will try to update as quickly as possible.I also started editing the earlier chapters. No big changes have been made just cleaning up some mistakes.<em>

_As always I want to thank everyone who left a review and welcome the new readers. _

_BYoshi1993_: _Sorry to disappoint you both with my characters and the length of my chapter. I really do try to do my best. _

_Zerones__: I do not plan the length of the chapters. When I started the story I tried to make them at least 2k+ long. The chapter's however have grown, so it is quite probable that they will continue to get longer. _

_That's all from me. _

_benthefirst, signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


	15. Confrontation

Chapter 15

Confrontation 

Felix was sitting on his bed in his room. Gaby was standing in front him with her arms crossed, looking down. Her right foot tapped the ground in repeatedly. He had been able to convince her to postpone him explaining his tail until they had a bit more privacy. Now however, the time has come.

"So Felix, would you mind telling me why you have a tail?" Gaby asked in a calm voice that did not fit to her body language.

"Well, I don't know why I got it, it just grew one day." Felix answered truthfully.

"So you woke up one morning and you just happened to have a tail? A pink one at that." Gaby clarified.

"I didn't pick the color. It's just a tail. I don't know why you are making suck a big deal out of it. It didn't bother you when my eyes, ears or even teeth changed." The defensive tone snuck into Felix's voice. His tail started swaying, as well. Not wanting to show his emotions to Gaby he grabbed it and held it tightly in his hands.

"So those are related?" she inquired.

"I don't know, probably. Byte thinks so at least."

"Byte? How would…?" Words failed Gaby. Felix however knew what she was going to ask.

"I can kind of understand my Pokémon and we have been trying to figure out why I am changing."

Gaby just stared at Felix. "So you can understand Pokémon? That awesome. I would gladly grow a tail just to understand my Pokémon …", she paused at the look Felix was giving her. "Um… sorry…so…have you been able to figure it out?"

"No, that's what I have been telling you." He brandished his tail at her. "It's just a tail, ok? Can we just move on now?"

"I'm sorry that I am so nosey." Gaby apologized, finally sitting down beside Felix on the bed. "It is just…. your tail looks so familiar."

"Wait, you've actually seen a Pokémon that has a tail similar to mine?" Felix asked in surprise.

"Yeah, of course. Wouldn't be much of a high priestess if I didn't. How did you know it was a Pokémon? Never mind that why don't you know which one it is?" Gaby added sternly.

"Huh…?" Was Felix intelligent comeback.

Sighing Gaby pulled a locket he had never seen before from under her shirt. The locket was surprisingly silver. Opening it, she handed it to Felix. Inside was an antic drawing of what he took to be Mew. It didn't look like much, but what caught his eye was the tail. It was rather thin but had a portion at the top that was thicker. And although the colors of the picture were faded, it was undeniably pink.

"Oh crap, this can't be happening." Felix muttered under his breath.

"What can't be happening." Gaby wanted to know.

"I must be turning into a Mew then. But how can that be?" Felix still muttered quietly more to himself than to anyone in the room with him.

"Wait, you are not just changing a little, but actually turning into a Pokémon?" Gaby asked.

"Yeah, that's what Byte thinks." Felix answered without really thinking.

"And that Pokémon is Mew."

"Yeah seems like it. " Felix replied. His brain slowly started to think about Gaby and what this might mean to her and the possible repercussion for him. He began to become really afraid of Gaby.

"But this is awesome. Just think about all the things we could do together. With you as a Mew thousands, what am I saying, millions will join our church. I will of course have to step down as the leader of the church as that part would belong to you. But the masses will just have to accept you."

Gaby sprang up and started pacing before Felix. The boy was slowly inching away from the girl, this time clutching his tail for support.

"We could have public speeches, maybe even go so far and build churches and shrines." Gaby got more and more excited. "Imagine Felix, there could be cathedrals built to your honor. You would be like a god."

Gaby stopped pacing as realization struck her.

"You will be a god… ", she quietly corrected herself. She looked at Felix who was now sitting at the other end of the bed, tail held tightly against his chest. "What am I doing?", was the only thought that went through her head at that moment.

Guilt washed over Gaby as her eyes met Felix's, biting her lip she decided to make things right again. She quickly walked over to Felix and kneeled before him. The fear in Felix got replaced by confusion.

"I am sorry your…" Gaby paused. How did one address a deity? "Mewness. I hope my actions did not offend you. If I did I deeply regret my actions."

"Um… Gaby, you know that…" Felix started but was cut off right away.

"I hope you don't punish me to harshly." Gaby continued. Tears began to form in her eyes. "I will accept any punish you choose for me however."

"Gaby, please stop…." Felix tried again.

"I am just trying to do a good job and be a good priestess. I didn't mean to disappoint you." Gaby all but shouted the last part. Tears now rolled freely down her cheeks. Without another word she got up and ran from the room, grabbing her incubator as she left. Felix was left to stare after her, trying to comprehend what had just transpired.

-o0o-

His first urge was to run after Gaby to calm her down, but he came to the conclusion that she could use some time alone to calm down a bit. Instead he pulled out Bytes Pokéball. He had a bone to pick with him. The now familiar flash of red preceded Bytes arrival.

=Awaiting command=

"Well Byte, looks like I found our mystery Pokémon." Felix announced.

=What is the unknown variable?= Byte wanted to know.

"Mew, the tail belongs to Mew." Felix enlightened his Pokémon

Byte became still. =Crosschecking results. Results show n high congruence. The assumption has a high probably of being correct=

"So, if you are able to crosscheck them now, why didn't you spot the similarities earlier?" Felix asked with an innocent voice.

=Mew was discarded in the first search do to the given search criteria=

"What search criteria?"

=Mew's anatomy suggests that it is bipedal. Felines are not bipedal=

Felix had to use all of self-control to not facepalm. Instead he merely rubbed his face. Looking around the room he felt exhausted. Why did all of this always happen to him? With a flash of guilt he remembered that he still hadn't brought his injured Pokémon to Nurse Joy. Gaby kind of side tracked him there.

"Let's go Byte. We have to get the others healed." Getting up from the bed, Pokémon and trainer left the room.

-o0o-

Making sure that he locked the door behind him Felix made his way down the stairs. As soon as he reached the landing, a blow hit him on the side of the head, sending him crashing to the floor. Felix threw up an arm hoping that the assailant would cease his assault for a minute so he could figure out what was going on and that Byte wouldn't attack the person and injure him badly.

Luckily both seemed to listen. Felix had to blink furiously to make the weird lights stop impairing his vision. When he could finally see, he found that Tanner had thrown the blow. He stood their coolly, sipping on some kind of hot beverage.

"Tanner, why?"

The boy in question took another careful sip of his cup before answering in a tone that carried desserts.

"I find it interesting that you have the audacity to ask that question. You know, I can tolerate a lot of things, even getting tackled while having a heated discussion, but when it comes to my sister I do not play around."

Felix was confused. It didn't help that his head hurt.

"I still don't understand why… oh Gaby…" It finally clicked for Felix. "Look you got it all wrong."

Tanner took another sip.

"Na, I think I got it quite right. I still do not know why you are trying to con her so badly, but I do not care. I first thought you were a good guy, but this proves that I was wrong. Everyone is on occasion. Seeing my sister leave this PokéCenter in tears is the final straw for me now. If ever see you near my sister again you will pay."

Felix tried to reason. "Seriously Tanner, I didn't do or try anything. Ask her."

"I will eventually. As for now: An eye for an eye." Without any warning he tipped the content of his cup on Felix's face. In the second before it actually hit, Felix noticed it was black tea. In a heartbeat he also noticed it was really hot. He immediately started wiping at his face trying to get the hot liquid off. At the same moment a cry sounded from Byte and the distinct noise of him tackling something was heard throughout the PokéCenter. Bystanders finally decided to intervene. A couple of people grabbed Felix under the arms and hefted him to the feet. Felix however bent over, clutching his burned face. It was really painful. A wet rag was shoved into his face and he gladly accepted it. Glancing up he found that several people were wrestling with Byte trying to keep him from using Tackle again.

"Stop it, Byte."

The Porygon2 immediately ceased his struggle. Looking he saw a group of people around Tanner. As they moved he saw half of Tanner's face had adopted a raw red color. People were calling for another rag as Felix locked eyes with Tanner. He saw him mouth "What are you?" before he broke away from the people surrounding him and went towards the exit.

Felix too, broke free and returned with Byte to his room. What had happened down there? Looking down at his trusted companion he asked Byte.

"Did you by any chance use a fire move?"

=Negative=

Felix's stomach clenched. There went his one rational explanation for the events that had just transpired. The only thing left what could have caused that burn was him. But how? He had read that some Pokémon were able to transfer any alignment onto the opposing Pokémon, but how would he have that ability? He didn't even do anything. Felix could feel a headache forming. To add to his dilemma he still hadn't checked in his Pokémon with Nurse Joy.

"Thanks for being there Byte."

=Of course=

"Team first, and then let's try to get me fixed up." Felix announced as he opened the door once more, stepped through and fell into a mist of pink.

The fall didn't last long enough for Felix to scream. He almost immediately landed on a pink fluffy cloud. Looking around he found, that he was in Gaby's heaven. Everything was pink. There were pink bubbles, pink trees and even pink candy cones sticking out of the pink ground.

=Hey Felix, we finally get to meet= A high-pitched voice sounded from somewhere to his right. Looking around he saw the Pokémon that somehow came to haunt his whole existence float mere feet away from him.

"Mew…", Felix said breathlessly. His personal feelings towards it aside, it still was a legendary Pokémon whose mere existence was subject to a lot of discussion.

=You already know me. That makes this so much easier= Mew cooed as he floated nearer to Felix. =I have something to tell you=

Felix starred expectantly at Mew, who just starred blandly back with her big blue eyes. Those eyes made Felix feel rather uncomfortable. The longer he looked at the more was reminded of his own. Finally he wrenched his eyes away from Mew's face. His eyes instead followed her tail, which did not make him feel any better.

"So…" Felix started reverting back to looking Mew in the face. "What do you have to tell me?"

Mew clapped a couple of times with her short hands and flew even closer.  
>=It's something really, really important=, she said in a low voice. =Most of all … it's secret= The last words were actually whispered.<p>

"So, will you tell me?" Felix asked hesitantly.

=Of course I will. Or the point of this trip would have been rather senseless wouldn't it? Well, basically … no, I got a better idea= The Mew started doing back flips and giggle profusely. The sound did not comfort Felix at all =I will tell you in a much more fun way. I will give you a riddle … no wait … a prophecy!=

"A prophecy?" Felix asked in disbelieve. "Why can't you just tell me?"

Mew took a small playful swipe at him =Because that would be no fun, silly. Be quite now for a moment. I need to think=

Felix swallowed whatever he was about to say. Infuriating or not, Mew was the legendary Pokémon here. Mew on the other hand appeared to be murmuring to herself before suddenly exclaiming =Got it!=

Moving right in front of Felix she took on a regal pose and started reciting.

=You have been chosen by destiny to… Um…= Scratching her head she tried to remember how it continued. It had rhymed so well in her head a couple of seconds ago. =what was it again…. Something something litany? Or was it… this is hard?= She started murmuring again. Felix was just sitting there in disbelieve.

=Or was it a rhyme on fine? Ah screw it!= Mew threw up both arms in frustrations. =Felix you are the next in line=

Silence fell after Mews announcement.

"For what?" Felix finally asked.

=What?=

"For what?"

=For what what?=

"For what am I the next in line for?" Felix asked angrily. He had a sneaking suspicion and wanted it confirmed.

=You are the next me of course, silly=

Strength left Felix body and he flopped onto the back. The reality of what was happening to him seemed to crash over him. When Gaby said it, it somehow didn't click for him. Now however, hearing it from Mew it seemed much more real. The Pokémon in question floated in his vision.

=Are you alright? You know, it is a lot of fun being me=

"Why me, Mew?"

Mew actually giggled nervously. =Well, you see. That is a funny story actually…=

"Will you tell me?" Felix pressed.

Mew's eyes went wide and her mouth was hanging half open as she suddenly exclaimed =Pancakes!=

"Pancakes?" the young boy asked utterly confused.

=I want pancakes! See ya later!= and without any further explanation Mew disappeared.

Staring incredulously and the spot Mew had been just a few seconds ago, Felix slowly sat up. He had no idea where he was. The pinkness of it all started to hurt his eyes and mentally he swore to himself that he would never complain about Gaby's outfit again. This … place took it to an all new level. With a small little pop and a pancake between her paws Mew reappeared right in front of him.

=Totally forgot about you. I need to send you back.=

"No wait, first you will tell me, why I was picked." Felix demanded. Mew however didn't listen at all.

=One more thing. Fix yourself, I can't change what is broken. Got that? Cool. Oh and if you see the others tell them to stop breaking the rules. Bye bye=

Something seemed to hit him hard in the abdomen and catapult him through a flurry of colors. A sudden stop knocked any remaining air out of him. Desperately trying to catch his breath again, he looked around to find a rather overexcited looking Porygon2 jumping around him. It took a while before oxygen returned to his brain and he made the connection. Sighing in relief he relaxed and held out a hand to put Byte at ease.

"Stupid Mew…." He murmured to himself.

-o0o-

_I am sorry. It took really long to update. Usually I hate making excuses but I have a one so here goes._

_I did not like how the plot was developing. When I looked at my plot notes I suddenly realized that they absolutely sucked and that I most likely was under the influence of a wide variety of drugs when I wrote them to think they were a good idea. What does this mean for you? Nothing really. The basic plot is still the same and you will not notice any changes. I just had a couple of things in there which were totally over the top. Also I have finally had enough with line breaks and using underlines and italics on Pokéspeech. It takes me usually 30+ min to coax to accept it and I just do not want to deal with it anymore. Instead I will use "=" to mark Pokéspeech as you clearly already noticed._

_I also dropped into a writing drought that I mentioned very early on. I am putting this chapter out, shorter then I actually wanted, to get things rolling again. I really hope that I can get back to my weekly update schedule, but no promises. So expect slow update times for the next couple of chapters._

_Thanks again for everyone who reviewed. It is really great to know that people actually read my story._

_Drebom: I never watched or read any of the Naruto things. The 9-tailed fox is actually a spirit in japanese myths. Seeing how the Pokémon world is more oriental, I went with a fox to describe pointy ears instead with elves, who are more commonly found in western legends._

_Draco: I was not aware that that site even existed until you pointed it out to me. Even in the Fire Red Rom Hack – Liquid Crystal a rival starts with a Porygon. It doesn't surprise me that other people find that Porygon is one of the coolest Pokémon out there :D_

_Hobbes: The basic plot isn't really difficult to figure out. The summary I put in sums it up, as it should. I hope I will be able to put some twists and turns in it so it is not totally predictable :)_

_Thanks again for sticking with me through this extended wait._

_That's all for now._

_benthefirst, signing out._

_Boom Boom Pow Away!_


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